About

Kellie Klein is a photographic artist living outside Chicago.  She received her BA in Photography from Southern Illinois University and her MFA in Photography from Columbia College.  For the past 30 years, Klein has been creating photographs that blur reality and question perception.  She works in traditional and digital photography, as well as the 19th Century processes of cyanotype, Vandyke, and gum bichromate printing.

Klein’s work has been shown in numerous, galleries, museums, and universities including the Louvre, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Indianapolis Art Center.  Her work is included in many private and public collections.  She has received grants from the Agfa Corporation, Columbia College, and the Illinois Arts Council.  Klein has been a nominee for the International Color Awards, the Lucie Awards, and the Exposure Awards.  She taught photography at College of DuPage, and has taught 19th century photographic techniques at colleges and workshops throughout the Midwest. 

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Statement

My approach to photography is to create and sometimes combine images in a way that unites reality with memory. I strive to enhance the expressive impact of photography while generating multiple narratives that address issues of time and perception.   My work portrays my belief that an examination of memory, spirituality, and generational mores can lead to a wider understanding of self and society. The images I create are interpretations of forgotten memories and transitory realities.

Meditations on Water

A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable. ~William Wordsworth

Meditations on Water is a study of the universal temperament of water, as well as the environmental effects of light, color, and perception.  My belief in the restorative power of water, informs and inspires my work.  On a more personal level, the images are influenced by my interest in the sublime aspects of nature.  The elements of nature that consistently remind me there is always something else, much greater than oneself. 

The photographs in this series investigate the visceral and meditative facets of water, by examining the serene, turbulent, and dynamic characteristics of lakes, rivers, and seas.  The majority of the work is a study of Lake Michigan, but encompasses other bodies of water, as well.

Whether a lake, an ocean, or the clouds in the sky, I see water as a natural metaphor for human disposition.  Just as the Gales of November affect the Great Lakes, individuals undergo equally tempestuous experiences.  Water can be as yielding, mighty, or as peaceful as the human mind.  To emphasize these emotional qualities in the photographs, I often use long exposures and minimalist points of view. 

Meditations on Water is an ongoing body of work motivated by the personal belief that water can carry us into “recesses of feeling” we might not have known existed. The images in this series are intended to remind viewers that water is a natural phenomenon that is as vast, mysterious, and fragile, as life itself.

A Matter of Time

Time is a human construct and people have measured time with candles, clocks, sundials, and calendars since before 1500 BC. The way people perceive time however, cannot be measured with a clock. Since the perception of time is influenced in part, by previous experiences and emotions, our concept of time gradually changes and is difficult to monitor. My own shifting notions of time influenced by family lore, motherhood, and inevitable losses prompted the series A Matter of Time.

A nonlinear body of photographs A Matter of Time presents what no longer exists; youth, ancestors, precise memories. The images combine personal history and memories to render visual metaphors for time. A spider in a jar, vanishing reflections, or a speeding train remind us that we are moving through time, or perhaps time is passing us by. People and places portray hints of our temporal presence, amidst an impermanent past.

An ongoing project, A Matter of Time utilizes photography to reveal how connections to places and to each other can help define, or cloud our concepts of time. The images depict the plasticity of memory with photographic blurs, layers, and imagined color palettes that render modified perceptions and new narratives. The photographs are physical reminders that the nature of time is as fluid, and subjective as individual experiences and memories.

Daydreams

Daydreams, is an ongoing series of photographs that explore those moments of fantasy that happen when we are awake.  Sometimes the daydreams are my own, and sometimes they are observations and interpretations of someone else’s make believe.  In either case, the resulting photograph is a moment when the lines between imagination and reality are blurred.  Instances when thoughts and ideas are as present as they are absent.  It is this, the interrupted sense of time and consciousness that I am interested in conveying.  I seek places and moments that are pastoral, introspective, ubiquitous, or disconcerting.  I photograph those instances when anything becomes possible if only for a moment. In an effort to make the invisible tangible, I investigate questions of human nature, existence, and spirituality.  The transparency in some of the imagery refers to the fragility of life, relationships, or religious themes.  In Daydreams, a walk in the woods can become a magical journey, or a butterfly can denote, hope, loss, or freedom.  In this series, I  photograph images that reside in the corners of my mind. 

Places

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now, he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined, and the land grows poorer and uglier.                                                                                                          Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya 1897

Places is a body of work that explores the juxtaposition of the natural and man made aspects of the landscape.  The world is full of monumental, natural beauty and yet humanity continues to alter the landscape at an alarming rate.  We put factories on pristine beaches, satellites in the middle of nowhere, power lines everywhere, and are continually building fences, factories, and highways.  Places is a series that has grown out of my concern for the natural environment and my faith that nature will somehow prevail.