Artist Statement

“I love the hustle of the city centre, and obsess over what happens when strangers are thrown together in close proximity.

“There is this alleyway in the Melbourne CBD. Light reaches it directly for only 20 minutes a day, around lunchtime. During these minutes, a transformation happens. Faces are illuminated, dust twirls through rays of sun, cigarette smoke becomes an almost glistening silver- blue against dark buildings. You can hear snippets of conversation and laughter between friends, and sometimes the muffled tum-tum of an iPod as if to draw attention to the lack of interaction between strangers. It’s a ‘mise en scene’, a theatre stage on which people become my protagonists for an instant.

“Thirteen:Twenty Lacuna captures tiny moments of us – strangers – passing each other by unnoticed. There is a fragile beauty in our gazes -- as if we were hanging on to something out of reach to anyone else, sacred only to us.”

Artist Bio

Katrin Koenning is a photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. Her work has been exhibited at renowned international museums, galleries and festivals such as Reportage Festival Australia, Voies Off Photo Festival France, and the City of Gijon International Photojournalism Festival in Spain, amongst others.

In addition to the Troika Editions Format Exposure Prize, Koenning has won a Julia Margaret Cameron Award, the APA Award and the Godfrey Rivers Medal for Outstanding Photographic Achievement. Her work has been published in print and online magazines including Der Spiegel, Eleanor Magazine, Deepsleep Magazine, The Guardian, Lightjourneys, Multimedia Muse, ARD Kultur Report and others.

From 2006 to 2008, Koenning was the Picture Editor of the Australian PhotoJournalist Magazine (APJ). She is the Editor of the APJ Silent Screams; Rights of the Child. She is part of a group of people who established the Centre for Documentary Practice (CDP), Australia. She is a photographer for Amnesty International Australia, and is represented by Obscura Photos.

For further information on Katrin Koenning please see www.katrinkoenning.com