Carolina Krieger: The intertwining of the abyss

Carolina Krieger: The intertwining of the abyss by Ana LealDecember 28, 2024

I became familiar with Carolina Krieger ‘s work throughout 2023, and right away, I was deeply captivated by her power and sensitivity. The following year, I had the opportunity to join a photography critique group that she mediates. It’s an incredibly rich space for exchange. My admiration for her has only grown since then as I’ve delved deeper into her work, both as an artist and an educator. Today, I share with you a brief interview I conducted with her, as well as two of her series: “Nostalgia of the Glade” and “Rosto de Sal.”

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #2

“Nostalgia for the Glade” is an essay produced from personal photographs, appropriations from family albums, and old books. In the process of these manual collages, I summoned images of distinct temporalities and origins to create a poetic-reflective instance, emulating in language the labyrinths erected between the conscious and the unconscious, seeking to bring to light issues related to ancestry and the enigmas of life.

Starting from a personal experience, I traced reflections on the process of creating images as an opening to the unknown: the unconscious mind presented by Sigmund Freud at the end of the 19th century, that is, the unknown within ourselves, what we do not control and always escapes us, eluding time itself and stretching into our behaviors and feelings.

In this essay, I was driven by an imperative desire to create images, generating collages in which I combined personal photographs with portraits of my mother or photographs taken by her. In one of the portraits, I made the gesture of covering her face with the words: “the great mystery.”

On July 2, 2021, shortly after the end of the essay, an image of another order was established: the death of my mother. She now inhabits the “Great Mystery,” and for as long as it’s meant to be, the traces of this question remain: would images be able to elaborate on something that will happen to us?

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #3

Carolina Krieger lives and works in Camboriú, SC, Brazil. She is a self-taught photographer. She works with photography, appropriated images and hand collage. You can see in her images small rituals of intensification with the mystery, which inhabits, surrounds and underlies us. Through her work, she raises the importance of diving within oneself as a way of apprehending the omnipresence of nature: visible and invisible. Awards: Diário Contemporâneo Photography Prize (2024), IPA International Photography Awards | Official Selection (2024), Prix Photo Aliança Francesa | Honorable Mention (2023), artist nominated for the PIPA award (2022), Pierre Verger Photography Prize (2021), Brazil Photography Prize (2013). Solo Exhibitions: Língua Gêmea – Mario de Andrade Library – São Paulo (2022), Lianzhou International Photo Festival – China (2013). Collective Exhibitions: The Dream – PhEST Monopoli International Photography and Art Festival, Italy (2024), The Photographic Unconscious – San Gugat Photography Festival, Spain (2024), Diálogos da Terra – Tiradentes Photography Festival, Brazil (2024), Projeções Brasil Imprevisto – Festival ON/OFF – Les Recontres d’Arles , France (2023), O mais profundo é a pele – Belizário Gallery – São Paulo (2023), PHotoEspaña Descubrimientos – Madrid (2014). Portfolio readings: Hamburg Portfolio Review (2024), IV Latin American Photography Forum/SP (2016), Trasaltántica PHotoEspaña São Paulo (2013).

Instagram: @carolinafoeskrieger

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #4, text on image – The sanctuary of music

What led you to work with photography and what keeps you connected to it?

Despite having grown up in a family with three photographers – my grandmother, mother and aunt photographed passionately – photographic making came unexpectedly into my life. On a work trip I borrowed a camera just to pass the time between appointments. So, one afternoon, I went out to photograph alone in a park. I vividly remember the sensation I experienced at that moment, it was as if the past, the present and the future joined hands and inaugurated the Being. This change in perspective of time and reality impacted me deeply. I then discovered in the photographic gesture the power to create new worlds and enter other realities. Since then, my bond with photography has deepened in such a way that I feel permanently connected to it. However, at the beginning of a project, when I’m still feeling its voice, I look for methods of connection with the work. For example, surrounding myself with other authors in the field of photography, literature, cinema or philosophy is fundamental, because such companies bring me closer to work and have brought me important tidings countless times.

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #5, text on image – Entrance into the world

What motivates you to start a new project?

The impulse to create my projects arises from the attentive observation of the tiny-immense events of everyday life and the astonishment I feel in the face of existence. The initial spark can erupt from abyssal questions related to the riddles of life and death, or from a simple exchange of glances with a dog. I am currently producing a work in which I reflect on the relationship with animals. This work was born from the deep and spiritual reciprocity that I experience with my animals. In this relationship, an intertwining of essences is established, an indistinction of bodies, animal-people as a single being that speaks the same language.

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #6

From what I’ve seen, you have a strong connection to music. What do you think are the similarities and differences between music and photography?

Music is an essential company in the process of creating my projects, from research, voice discovery, image creation, editing the work and writing the text. I feel that music and photography give rise to similar movements. We experience a kind of expansion and introspection, sometimes simultaneously, when we are immersed in a photograph or a song. Through the rhythm, the atmosphere, the silence, the melody, the composition, the feeling of a song or a photograph, we are launched to high and distant flights, where we often forget our own names, and, at the same time, we dive into the core of our being, revisiting memories stored in the most recondite places. What differentiates them is the way we receive the call to this sensitive experience. However, I think that this difference is often erased, blurred and diluted, because we can also hear the sound of a photograph as well as see images in a song.

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #7

What are the biggest challenges you face?

One of the biggest challenges is balancing time and energy between my authorial work and the demands of the mundane. Another very challenging point is to be able to make some projects that require high financial investments viable, such as the publication of photobooks of my work.

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #8

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #9

©Carolina Krieger, Nostalgia for the Glade #10

“Rosto de Sal” proposes a reflection on the image as a means of alchemy, elaboration and healing. It raises the incessant metamorphosis of life: energy transforming into matter, matter transforming into energy. We are transitory forms sparking in and out of existence, engendering a continuous movement.

In 2021, when my mother’s physical-body was ripped away from me by the Inconceivable, I began the journey that would give rise to this essay. Going through the notes and italics in her books letter by letter, I linked her textual gestures, her portraits and photographs from my childhood to my authorial images, thus weaving the cord that would lead me to her energetic-body.

This essay evokes, through the photographic-body, the presence of an absent-body. Through artistic gestures, it rescues the traces of what remains of the natal-body, the mother-body. It ritualizes the creation process and inaugurates a space where it is possible for bodies that inhabit different dimensions to meet.

Focused on the circular perception of existence, in this essay I trace a place where I call my mother to dance.