In his new book Vandals, the Dutch-born, Paris-based photographer examines the uniforms of young men around Europe
“I took a lot of interest in having a very good hairdo,” says Winter Vandenbrink, reminiscing about his teen years in the Netherlands. “I was always in the shopping mall, hanging around listening to The Cure and Depeche Mode. It’s where I went to flaunt my hair.” The cast of Vandals, Vandenbrink’s new monograph of urban youth portraits, are similarly concerned with this leisurely pursuit, perceived by the photographer in “the places you don’t want to go to, tourist destinations and busy high streets” (read: Dam Square, the Duomo, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus).
In his pictures, sartorial observations characterised by tight crops and a high resolution, Vandenbrink’s subjects wear various parties of sports labels, designer brands and streetwear. They pair The North Face with their Nike and layer Louis Vuitton over Adidas, often accessorising with a phone or a fizzy drink, sometimes a motorbike or a DSLR or an arm in a cast. Admired from afar and photographed with a long lens, this distinctive style of shooting is largely a byproduct of Vandenbrink’s introversion, but in part is also the result of being a teenager averse to wearing his glasses. “My parents wouldn’t let me wear contact lenses and the only things I could see were close by,” he shares. “So this became a fascination – with fabrics, skin, hair, whatever – which I think has something to do with it too.”
Recently published as a heavyweight, 400-page volume by IDEA, Vandals, the series, has been a part of Vandenbrink’s life for close to 12 years (an earlier, slimmer version of the title was released by Études in 2021). “At first it was purely for myself – [looking at] how these kids behave and dress – but slowly it took over from my fashion work and I started to become more of a documentary photographer,” he explains. “Since COVID, my Instagram’s got more popular and now when I post a recognisable image, like with a face, within a day or a few weeks somebody will message ‘hey, that’s me’. It’s nice to be in touch.” The book comes with additional text by Sean Thor Conroe.
At its core, Vandals examines the uniforms of young people around Europe, and there are echoes of Hans Eijkelboom’s People of the Twenty-First Century and Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroe’s Exactitudes in the project’s wider social framework. Vandenbrink however, is more informed by film he notes, offering directors Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Larry Clark as examples, while his background in the fashion industry was another catalyst. “It definitely comes from my fashion work [this interest in youth culture], being inspired by people like Raf Simons and his book The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes,” he says. “Originally I started shooting every walk of life, but I quickly narrowed it down to this group, boys specifically, because I can really see it better – how they are, the possibility, or impossibility, to create their own individuality. I shoot girls as well, but it’s less clear to me.”
Previously calling the project Street Work, the book’s moniker arrived a few years ago via Vandenbrink’s boyfriend, who gave him a copy of the German philosopher Theodor Adorno’s Minima Moralia; Vandals is an essay from 1945. “The text is really about the saturation of capitalism and consumerism, and it helped shape the work – I had the subject, it was already about youngsters and consumerism – but the text helped me to aim my camera,” he suggests, additionally referencing 1914: One or Several Wolves, by the French philosophers Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze.
Still very much an active project (the book’s latest photographs were shot just a month before publishing, while Vandenbrink has already shot more since it went to print), the photographer is excited for where it might go next. “I don’t see [the book] as closure, it’s way too much fun. So I will go on, but maybe it will look different. For example, I did a shoot with a boy who found himself on my Instagram, it’s quite an interesting series, maybe I’m going to make it public in October,” he considers. “It’s a natural thing, ultimately, my camera is like one of those spiritual sticks that point to water, like a magic wand. I’m easily drawn to the things I want to capture.”
