Irene Cécile

Irene Cécile (the Netherlands, 1981)

works as a photographer, web designer and

illustrator. She studied photography at the

Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, during

which time she was nominated for two of

its awards: The Thesis Award and the Paul

Schuitema Prize for a striking and committed

final exam. She has exhibited at various

places in the Netherlands.

Cécile’s installation, which consists of a

series of photos and a book entitled If you

look closely, they are everywhere – a guide to

a more playful life (2009), plays with everyday

situations and objects. Life is too serious.

All too often the focus is on usefulness,

responsibility, ambition and hard work.

Unless we are very careful, we get stuck in

a rut. Cécile’s simple but inventive photos

offer the rut-bound a way out. She focuses

on the beauty of the everyday, and seeks

to fill us with wonder and make life more

playful. Things are allowed to be ‘simply

for fun’. When seen through Cécile’s lens,

‘the crisis’ is not a theme that is filled with

doom and gloom; her optimistic response

encourages us to take a second, more hopeful

look.