Rineke Dijkstra’s (Born 1959 in Sittard, Netherlands) apparently straightforward portraits divulge her perceptions of her sitters through the smallest details and subtlest facial expressions. She is concerned with balancing her subjects’ deliberate self-presentation with their unwitting self-revelation.

In 1998, in connection with an upcoming exhibition at the Herzliya Museum of Art in Israel, Dijkstra undertook a new body of work in which she recorded young men and women who had joined the Israeli army. She took photographs of the men after a shooting exercise and the women on their first day of enlistment. Since then, Dijkstra has returned to Israel frequently to follow some of these original sitters and to document new recruits.

These two photographs of “Evgenya” were taken in 2003—the first on the day she was inducted, still in civilian clothes, and the second eight months later, in uniform. With this knowledge, we search Evgenya’s face, clothing, even hairstyle for clues as to if (and how) military service has transformed this striking young woman. Does she look fearful or apprehensive on her first day? Does she seem more confident in uniform? We might expect Evgenya’s fatigues to dampen her individuality, yet even in an army uniform her assertive self-expression is evident in her dark eyeliner, wispy bangs, and sure gaze.