BIOGRAPHY

Margaret Lansink received her BA in Photography from the PhotoAcademy in Amsterdam and continued her studies at Le Masterklass Paris and Atelier Smedsby.

From the beginning of her artistic career, Lansink positioned herself within the tradition of intuitive, analog photography, while expanding its expressive possibilities through collage, painting and alternative printing techniques such as Liquid Light and platinum palladium printing. Her visual language — subtle, poetic and emotionally charged — seeks to question dominant ideals of beauty, presence and control, especially as they relate to the female body and the aging self.

Lansink first gained international attention with her award-winning series Borders of Nothingness – On the Mend, a deeply personal exploration of loss and reconciliation, grounded in Japanese philosophy. Her work consistently addresses themes of impermanence, transformation and visibility — in both the human and natural realm — using fragmentation, layering and physical alteration as core strategies. She has published eight photobooks, four of which were handmade in limited editions. Through her “soft activism”, she confronts conventional views of femininity, age and ecological detachment. In her most recent series, Lansink expands her practice to include abstracted landscapes and painted photographic collages, in which the original image becomes partially hidden, inviting the viewer to question what remains seen, and what is rendered invisible.

Her works have been exhibited in museums, galleries and festivals across Europe, North America and Asia, including Paris, Tokyo, Kyoto, New York, Miami, Tbilisi, Amsterdam, and The Hague. They are part of major public collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris).

In 2019, Lansink was awarded both the Grand Prize of the Hariban Award and the Best Dutch Book Design for The Kindness of One. In 2025, her book Unbound won the top prize at the Fedrigoni Top Awards. Lansink is the founder of iwi_collective, a platform for socially engaged visual artists, and is currently based in the Netherlands.

EDUCATION

2019 - Atelier Smedsby Paris
2018 - 2019 - Masterclass Machiel Botman
2016 - LeMasterklass of Klavdij Sluban & Nestan Nijaradze / Paris
2010 - 2012 Photography, Photo Academy Amsterdam (BA)
2004 - 2005 Photography, Fotovakschool Apeldoorn

RESIDENCIES

2019 - Benrido Atelier for Grand Prize Winner Hariban Award
2016 - Kaunas Gallery - Kaunas Lithuania for ‘The Kindness of One’.
2017 - Shiro Oni Studio - Onishi Japan for ‘The Kindness of One and for “Borders of Nothingness”

AWARDS / HONORS / GRANTS

2025 1st Price Winner At Fedrigoni Paper Top Awards
2019 Best Dutch Book Designs 2019 with Kindness of One
2019 Grand Prize Winner Hariban Award
2019 Shortlist Gomma Grant 2018
2019 Longlist Lucy Art Residence Greece
2018 Honorable mention ND Awards 2018
2018 Shortlist Athens Photofestival
2018 part of Reclaim Photography Festival Wolverhampton UK
2018 Shortlist Fotofilmic18
2017 Selected for AIR at Shiro Oni Studio Onishi Japan
2016 Bronze Star Award book ‘fear no more’ at ND Photography
2016 Selected for AIR at Kaunasgallery Kaunas Lithuania
2015 Selected as 10 best of 1000 Photos Amsterdam
2015 Selected for Photoville NY
2013 Selected for GUP New Dutch Photography Talent 2013