Wolfwendy Chicago Center for Literature and Photography Photographer Feature Interview and Layout: Rebecca Brink January 9, 2014
Location: Berlin and Helsinki Maria Windsch端ttel was born in 1986 in Berlin, Germany. She studied painting and drawing from 2006-2013 in the class of Werner B端ttner at Hochschule f端r bildende K端nste Hamburg, and from 2011 studied fine arts at Aalto University/ TaiK Helsinki. Since 2012 she has been living and working in Germany and Finland.
Mystic symbols, nature, the seasons, and the moon feature heavily in your photography: What is your interest in the occult, or if not the occult, what is your interest in them as subjects?
Beauty. It simply doesn’t seem necessary at all to underline maudlinly kistchy photos with maudlinly kistchy sentences. But I even don’t know if you can say maudlinly kitschy when you’re talking about maudlin kitsch.
Is the horizon just a way for you to frame your photographs, or does it have a greater significance for you?
Quite the contrary to a frame: for me, the horizon seems to be a connection to the sky which opens the scenery with its included idea of infinity. That caught moment gets from time to time interminably heavily fulfilled with endless space, dimensions, beauty and void.
You seem really unafraid to experiment with flash and exposure in your photographs; some pictures turn out very white and some dim photos turn out grainy, but it seems like an intentional effect. Is that right? Indeed light is a very rewarding instrument for me to use. It illuminates, brightens and defines moments, of course, but it is also able to hide contours, colors and situations if overexposed which is what’s even more interesting for me. Probably it is only a question of time until some of my pictures will end up all like a greatly huge whiteout.
wolfwendy.com flickr.com/wolfwendy
cclapcenter.com/features