Kirsten Klein (born 1945) is a Danish photographer who since the mid-1970s has lived on the island of Mors. She has become one of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

's foremost landscape photographers, developing a highly characteristic, somewhat melancholic style, frequently achieved by employing older photographic techniques.

Early life

Born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, she completed her photographic studies in 1966. From 1967, she travelled widely, in particular to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, and later, to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. In 1976, she settled on the Danish island of Mors in northern

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

Artistic style

It was on Mors where, inspired by the island's landscape, she developed her characteristic style which has continued to evolve ever since: sensitive, poetic and often melancholy depictions of landscapes, marked by the changing seasons, the weather, human cultivation and the unending effects of nature itself. The sea is also a recurring theme: she has specialized in photographing the coasts of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Her work takes us on a kind of romantic, religious journey through nature. She works in all weathers and all season, showing her familiarity with nature. The part of nature that interests her the most is the transition between near and far and the wealth of shades of grey that lie in between the black of the shadow and the white light. In her photography, Klein looks for the moments that have a touch of eternity in them. She looks for the timelessness of thousand-year-old tree trunks or stone formations which testify to the landscape's slow topographical development. In this context, nature is revealed as an organic whole, hardly touched by mankind. Since the end of the 1980s, she has produced black-and-white photographs, often employing older techniques such as

cyanotype The cyanotype (from Ancient Greek κυάνεος - ''kuáneos'', “dark blue” + τύπος - ''túpos'', “mark, impression, type”) is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet ...

and

platinum printing Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

Awards

She was awarded the Thorvald Bindesbølls medal in 1994 and is the only female photographer in Denmark to be awarded a lifelong grant from the Danish Arts Foundation. In 2001, she was the first photographer to be awarded

Jyllands-Posten ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulat ...

's cultural prize and in 2012, the first photographer to receive the

Thorvaldsen Medal The Thorvaldsen Medal (Danish: Thorvaldsens Medalje, Thorvaldsen Medaillen) is awarded annually with few exceptions to a varying number of recipients by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and is its highest distinction within the visual arts. It ...

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''Akademiraadet''. Retrieved 5 June 2012.

Bibliography

*Klein, Kirsten (Text: Finn Thrane, Translation: Amy Lightfoot) "''Det evige nu / The eternal present''", Sophienholm, KunstCentret Silkeborg Bad, Denmark, 2007, 79 pp, parallel text in Danish and English. . *Klein, Kirsten, "''Spor af tid på Mors''", Morsø Kunstforening af 1961, 2007, 36 pp, . *Klein, Kirsten, "''Mellem lyset og mørket''", Copenhagen 2010, Gyldendal, 200 pp, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Kirsten 1945 births 20th-century Danish photographers 21st-century Danish photographers Danish photographers Living people Danish women photographers Recipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal 20th-century women photographers 21st-century women photographers

Early life

Artistic style

Awards

Bibliography

See also

References