Michelle Groskopf: Sentimental

Michelle Groskopf: Sentimental by Aline SmithsonNovember 3, 2017

©Michelle Groskopf

“This is how I see. This book is a map of my whims. It’s a diary, in memory of all the days I trotted half in love down the street. We tend to forget that most of life takes place up close, where we cross each other’s paths. When we frame that energy, we can marvel at its beauty.” – Michelle Groskopf

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for flash photographs, and Los Angeles photographer Michelle Groskopf‘s are right up with the best of them. Michelle is like an urban hunter, stalking her subjects for details and gestures. The results are some pretty big game, to be savored and considered after her five years of expeditions throughout Los Angles. I’m happy to say that the Magenta Foundation also feels the same way and is publishing a book of her work. Sentimental is a collection portraits and details that combine to reflect the human experience, ordinary people who are simply making their way in the world, photographed with curiosity and energetic enthusiasm. Magenta and Michelle have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help her raise funds to support the book production. I hope you consider supporting it.

Originally hailing from Canada, Michelle Groskopf is a Los Angeles based photographer. Her work is a mix of photo journalism, portraiture and street photography. She holds a BFA in film and video production from the School Of Visual Arts in New York where she also taught as an adjunct professor in the graduate film and video dept. She is a member of the celebrated flash photography collective Full Frontal Flash. Her work has been shown around the world and featured in publications such as The British Journal Of Photography, American Photo, The Huffington Post, Vice Magazine and It’s Nice That, among others. Michelle is dedicated to
empowering youth through photography and education initiatives working with the Lucie Foundation, Educare and Youth Arts to inspire the next generation of photographers and artists. Her clients include, Refinery 29, Bloomberg Businessweek, Vice Magazine, Marie Claire France, Aftenposten, and Stern Magazine.

A Word From The Magenta Foundation:
Published by the Magenta Foundation, Sentimental will be sold in limited quantities through our Kickstarter campaign. This is an Early Bird offering to everyone and will be sold as a limited edition.

The publication of Sentimental will be the first monograph by Michelle Groskopf. All of us here at Magenta have been big supporters of the work for the past few years and we are very pleased to be working together with Michelle to bring this book to fruition. We’re very excited to present this accomplished body of work and monograph to a global audience.

©Michelle Groskopf

Sentimental

This is how I see. This book is a map of my whims. It’s a diary in memory of all the days I trotted half in love down the street. It’s how I see colors and how I hold faces up to be worshiped. It is my love letter to the industrious nature of hands and all the ways they show us our busyness and our bustling. This is how I formulate my daily geography, the very things that prop me up and keep me afloat. This book is a dream line straight to my childhood where I first learned to roam.

I’ve shot almost daily in Los Angeles for the past 5 years. This is the first time this work is being collectively published. ‘Sentimental’ is my love letter to this grand city and it’s people. It’s also a love letter to my childhood and all the ways it shaped my aesthetic. Photography acts as a time machine, allowing me to revisit the faces and visual iconography of my youth. Although I hope the images stand alone, it has always been about how they play off of each other to create a new world, built on the loving details and unforgettable faces that pass in front of my camera daily. –Michelle Groskopf