Nuremberg, the city where Albrecht Dürer lived and practiced his art, is my hometown. Dürer’s paintings, etchings, and woodcuts have influenced me, from my first self-portrait in first grade to my historical photographs. The true subject of my photographic work may be termed the question of representation.
 
My series "Menschenkunde" captures the lighting and composition of Renaissance painting. My inspiration comes from Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, painters famous for linking beauty and psychological insight – at least according to Jakob Burckhardt, the 19th century Swiss art historian responsible for establishing the Renaissance as the beginning of modern aesthetic sensibility. Burckhardt may have been right, but it is also true that his ideas on the Renaissance tell us as much about his 19th century culture as they do about early modern painters. In my portraits I try to show the ambiguity of historical portraiture.
 
Angelika Rinnhofer (April 2006)