Documentary projects

Diana Blok was born in 1952 in Montevideo, Uruguay and has lived in Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City en Guatemala. She studied Sociology in Mexico City from 1969-73 before moving to Amsterdam in 1974 where she devotes herself to photography. In 1998 she follows a post-graduate course at the Maurits Binger Film Instituut Amsterdam.

In 1983, together with Marlo Broekmans, she publishes her first book Invisible Forces. Other titles were to follow: Blood Ties and Other Bonds (1990), Adventures in Cross Casting (1997), Ay Dios with writer Jan Brokken (2001), Possible Paradise (2004) with author Annette de Vries and See Through Us (2009).

Her work has been shown at numerous occasions in group and solo exhibitions, her work is represented in major collections worldwide.
In 1992 she was commissioned to make portraits for the Dutch pavillion at EXPO 92, Sevilla. She was artist in residence at the Sacatar Foundation Bahia, Brasil in 2002. In 2003 the Fonds voor de Podium Kunsten invited her to document Carifesta in Suriname.

From 2006-2009 she taught photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KABK) in The Hague, complementing to the master classes and workshops taught in the Netherlands and abroad: University of Industrial Arts, Helsinki; School for Photography/University of Goteborg, Sweden; Rijksacademie, Amsterdam; Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam and Hoge School voor de Beeldende Kunsten, Arnhem.

Her projects have been supported on various occasions by the Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) in Amsterdam as well as by the Mondriaan Foundation.