Pippa Filippa
Photography BA
Royal Academy Of Art The Hague KABK
Specialisms: Photography / Storytelling / Fine Art
Location: Den Haag, Netherlands
Pippa Filippa
First Name: Pippa
Last Name: Filippa
Specialisms: Photography / Storytelling / Fine Art
Sectors:
My Location: Den Haag, Netherlands
University / College: Royal Academy Of Art The Hague KABK
Course / Program Title: Photography BA
About
Artist Statement
PIPPA FILIPPA (2004)
Artist - Photographer
Based in The Hague
(NL)
My practice is informed by the continuous cycles of transformations that humans encounter throughout their lifetime. Rooted in personal experience, my work explores themes of (bodily) autonomy, the construction of self-image, and the emotional processes that come with change. I see art, especially photography, as a coping mechanism, a way to process and give form to what is often difficult to articulate. This function is not just underlying but present within the work itself.
A key aspect of my practice is moving from the personal toward the relatable. Through metaphor, staging, and framing, I translate intimate experiences into images that invite recognition and connection. By opening a dialogue with my surroundings, I aim to extend the work beyond myself while still holding onto its specificity.
Honesty and openness are an important element in my work. Because the work is drawn from my own experiences, I approach it with a commitment to vulnerability. For me, a work is only successful if it is exposing and sincere. I’m interested in creating space for emotional transparency, where the viewer can engage with the work not just visually, but empathetically, encountering it as both a personal expression and a shared reflection.
Fig. 22 On the 13th of March 2026, I underwent a breast reduction. What began as an instinctive decision unfolded into a complex physical and psychological process that reshaped my under- standing of control, self-image, and embodiment. Throughout the making of this project, my sense of agency has shifted bet- ween being a subject, maker, and object. I came to understand my autonomy not as something fixed, but as something conti- nuously negotiated, internally, physically, and within broader social and cultural frameworks. This raised questions about how decisions concerning the body are formed, and how they are never entirely separate from their context. The work moves through this experience as a non-linear pro- cess shaped by emotional and physical transformation. My body becomes a site where control and uncertainty coexist, where intention and lived experience do not always align. Through a series of images documenting bodily change, internal conflict, and clinical spaces, I trace a shifting relationship to my own body. Photography became a way of coping with the pro- cess: a means of staying close to the body while also creating enough distance to observe it. Through this, I examine the pull between altering the body for comfort and well-being and facing the conditions that made such a change feel necessary in the first place.
Competitions
