Artist Statement : ____________________

ARTIST STATEMENT :

As an artist working with photography, my work starts with a strong need to get a grip on the never-ending production and dissemination of photographic imagery.

At my final year at art school I started a project, 'The Free Catalogue' (working title). I was deeply inspired by the work of German photographer August Sander (1876-1964) and his way of creating a catalogue of archetypes, as demonstrated in his magnum opus Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century).
My initial confusion about the contemporary nearly never-ending ‘stream of images’, was given ground by Sanders' way of categorization. By means of my self-created archive of photographic series and single photographs, I try to funnel my experience and perception of mainly advertising, fashion and product imagery with which I find myself surrounded, and the images I have absorbed in the past - on the internet, in magazines and books, or in public space.

My work deals with the seductive aesthetics of this photography, in order to recreate and analyze commercial images - often with a sense of (visual) humour (for example XI. Illusion, 2011-2016). Since 2015 I got intersted in the stereotypes of ecomm photography and created the on-going series XV. Shopnow.fr and the webshop. Shopnow.fr aims to explore the concept of the webshop itself in relation to the image. Other series like XIX. Oeuvre and XX. GoSees reflect my interest in image research and history and my strong fascination for adapting well-known strategies of creating photographs to discover something new, depict current changes and developments.

Up to this day, I still organize my images in sections, which I give titles such as III. The Garden, IV. Ads, VI. The Breakfast, VII. Poster, XI. Illusion, and XII. Desserts. Reading those titles, a stock photography catalogue might come to mind. This growing archive of photographic series is a personal reflection on image stereotypes.

Some of my photographs have been materialised into artist books and framed objects. In exhibitions, the intermediate zone of decoration and art installation is of interest to me, raising questions about the influence of commercialism and shop window design on the concept of 'Art' and the art installation (and vice versa). My images, sometimes presented in colourful or matching frames on stands, let the photographs become objects, they become products themselves. Both image and its placement together serve and re-examine the fine line between art and decoration.

In the past 10 years, I have worked both as an artist with the medium photography and as a photographer in the fashion and advertising industry, shooting still life and fashion editorials for print magazines like Numéro Berlin, Wallpaper*, Die Dame, ZEIT Magazin, Alla Carta or Baron Magazine and campaigns for Rimowa, Birkenstock, Louis Vuitton, Farfetch, HUGO and Glossier. Because of my commercial photography work, it seems, I become even more aware of the stereotypes I am referring to in my personal series. To me, Art, as well as commercial photography change and influence each other.

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