Christianna Kreiss – Artist Statement
My work explores geometric forms as seen in architecture, cityscapes and nature through the medium of photography. I often feel that an image is already there, just waiting to be discovered and explored. My images can be representational on the first view, but also invite the observer to a more dream-like and abstract visual journey. In many of my pieces, I use digital photography and digital printing and combine these modern techniques with alternative photographic contact printing processes such as Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown or Palladium printing. These early, 19th photographic techniques have their own sensibility by creating monochromatic and sometimes slightly painterly images, letting the viewer travel back in time and into their own memories. The distancing effect by using these printing techniques offers reinterpretation and new exploration of familiar views and objects. Combination of these processes with digital technology allows for experimentation and new insights into acquainted subject matter.
After having shot digitally for many years, I have recently rediscovered film photography using medium format film with the Holga camera – a simple plastic camera without any electronics. Using an analogue process loops back to photography as I had known it when I first held a camera in my hands as a teenager. The simplicity of the Holga connects with my interest in experimental photography such as taking multiple exposures. My images challenge traditional views and invite the viewer to engage in an alternate form of perception.