Karl Child
When we asked Karl to tell a short bio he told us that it always has been difficult for him to talk about himself and his work. He rather tries to express himself through his photographs. He uses his Bronica to obtain his desired aesthetic, just like a painter chooses a certain type of brush to do so. He enjoys the entire process of taking images and points out the importance of being thoughtful while taking pictures.
He regards all of his work as an extension of himself and his life experiences. The topic connecting all of his work is memory. He says he is somehow obsessed with how, what and why we remember and forget, and why our brains fabricate false memories. Photography, in his opinion, plays a vital role within these questions.
The Steve Project, which initially was started in collaboration with Claire Angel (www.claire-angel.com), is an observation of the relationship between families and photography, a documentation of traditional display methods of domestic photography. We all have family albums and photographs we like to keep on display, but what he’s really interested in is the psychology behind that, and why we use photography the way we do. The name of the project relates to his own family archive. In his case the images of his father are his only memories as he died when he was eight years old and his “internal” memories are faint or non-existent. In this respect photography has been an important aspect of his life in finding out where he came from.