ARTIST STATEMENT: CARLEIN

post conceptual iphonista
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlein/

I was born and raised in the Netherlands and moved to Toronto recently. My background is painting, abstracts, and mixed media. At the art academy where I studied, I was also able to take photography classes. My world is purely visual. Wherever i am, i look around me and see possible pictures. I let myself lead by my inspiration and curiosity. I don't have a plan when i start shooting. I work either "pure" so hardly reworked or i work in layers, like i build up my mixed media paintings.

I started with iPhoneography 2 years ago. My iPhone work really got noticed in 2011. My work has been featured on some sites and blogs, and I have been featured in interviews as well.  I first exhibited some work in galleries in Santa Ana, Berkeley, and LA.  The big break came when I was invited to participate in Eyephoneography #2 in Madrid May 2011. Ten of my pieces where shown there. The event got a lot of press coverage in El Mundo, El Pais, Playboy, and on television. That was was followed by the Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival, an exhibit with amongst others Eric De Fino, Richard Koci Hernandez and Dan Cristea. For the festival, our work was printed on aluminum.

Concurrent to that festival, Mobile eyephoneography  was launched. Thi involves the work of Eyephoneography #1 and #2 travelling around Spain with stops in eight major cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Sevilla to name a few).

In January 2012 i was the winner of the IPA Mobile Grant Award 2011

In February 2012, I was featured in Latitudes, an international Photography Festival held annually in Huelva, Spain. This is a major breakthrough where photography and  iphoneography were shown on a museum level. Latitudes hosts works by renowned photographers, including Magnum greats such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Doisneau, just to name a few.

In April 2012 the "iPhone Fotografie"  was published by the german National Geographic in which i am featured with 30 pages, next to Richard Koci Hernandez, Carsten Peter, Damon Winter and Michael Christopher Brown.