Portrait of the Writer Gerard Reve

Dijkstra took this photograph of the renowned Dutch writer Gerard Reve two years before he died. Controversial because of the explicit homoerotic or blasphemous passages in his novels, the writer had sat for many photographers before her. Reve was a clever poseur who used photography to fashion his image. The writer of yore, however, can hardly be recognized in this portrait of a senile old man.