Dutch photographer Scarlett Hooft Graafland, who collaborates with people living in remote areas, has her first exhibition at In focus galerie, in Cologne, Germany.
Scarlett Hooft Graafland’s creates magical photographic images in far-flung places, including the high-altitude salt flats in Bolivia, remote farm sheds in Iceland, the beaches of Yemen, Madagascar, the polar region and the Dutch village of Gorinchem. Her work touches upon major themes such as the disappearance of traditional cultures and the fragility of nature, yet the tone is always light, colorful and surreal. Scarlett Hooft Graafland turns these austere surroundings into live actors in the highly choreographed performances that she stages there. Weeks of preparation, in which she works closely with inhabitants, culminate in a scene where local social issues take center stage and the vast surreal landscape becomes the chorus of a classical tragicomedy that silently comments on the subject. Without the use of any digital manipulation, using only her analogue camera and the natural light that reveals itself during the enactment, the artist truthfully captures the joyful drama in the open scenery.
Scarlett Hooft Graafland, Shores Like You
6 November – 23 December, 2017
In focus galerie
Hauptstrasse 114
50996 Köln
Germany
