Over the period of ten years, Adrienne van Eekelen photographed the girl Raphaëla and her physical development into a young woman. Van Eekelen conceived the project because she could no longer consciously recall how she herself had experienced the physical and emotional changes during her own growth process from a child to an adult. In doing this she wanted, she says, to have the courage to show something that 'is pure, honest and real' in these times. With the fullest confidence from Raphaëla and her mother she began the series, and RAPHAËLA (1994-2004) is now ready to be shown to the outside world. It was her decision to wait for this until Raphaëla was an adult, because according to her the project was 'vulnerable, fragile and intimate' for all involved.

With her hard black and white photography Adrienne van Eekelen (Netherlands, b. 1963) seeks to create personal time documents. Her work has been shown in Greece and Australia, and in previous editions of Noorderlicht. In 2003 she was selected for the Noorderlicht photo commission Promised Land.