Shortlisted solo artists OPEN CALL 2023
THE OPEN CALL SHORTLIST 2023
The programme committee and Copenhagen Photo Festival would like to thank all the applicants who have applied for a solo exhibition at this year’s Copenhagen Photo Festival. We have now selected nine shortlisted photographers out of the several hundred applicants from more than 40 countries seeking the open call for 2023. It was inspiring to look through each individual project engaging with this year’s theme, rewilding. The final solo artists who will be headliners at this year’s Copenhagen Photo Festival will be announced on 1 March.
Craig Ames – Photographs of British Algae – AI Impressions, 2022
Sargassum bacciferum from Craig Ames’ project “Photographs of British Algae – AI Impressions”, 2022.
In “Photographs of British Algae – AI Impressions” Craig Ames used a broad sample of the Latin names of the algae that the botanist Anna Atkins photographed and processed them through a text-to-image AI generator, producing a body of work which was labelled and catalogued to create a new visual taxonomy of simulated algae.
Ames work explores contested spaces, expanded forms of evidence, simulation, artificial intelligence imaging as well as the networked image. He translates his ideas and projects with a range of different mediums, such as photography, AI imaging, text, moving image and sourced, online material. His artistic practice has expanded to reveal contested spaces on the home-front, in the UK and abroad, after he observed the disturbing expansion of nationalism and far right ideologies. More recently, his focus has shifted to exploring his long-term fascination with artificial intelligence.
Ames was trained as an evidence photographer in the British military and has since developed a diverse artistic practice. He has a BA (Hons) Degree in Photography from the Kent Institute of Art and Design (UK), and a MA in Photography from the University of Sunderland (UK).
Erik Berglin – The Bird Project, 2006 – 2017
Trichoglossus Haematodus, Calle Gervasio Espinosa, Buenos Aires from Erik Berglin’s project “The Bird Project”, 2020.
“The Bird Project” is a long-term work that he created between 2006 and 2017. Berglin wheat-pasted hand cut photographs of birds in cities all over the world. The birds, which were all in natural size, were placed at selected locations to then be documented photographically by the artist himself.
In his practice, Berglin explores the boundaries of what photography is and can be today. His often humorous work ranges from interventions in public space, fact/fictional storytelling and appropriation of material found in old books or online. While his practice revolves around text and images, he uses a camera very rarely; instead, to create images, he often uses either customized computer algorithms or scissors.
Erik Berglin holds a BFA at the HDK-Valand Art Academy, Gothenburg as well as a MFA at the same academy. In addition to having exhibited all over the world, his work has been awarded 2 Swedish book awards for his project “The Bird Project 2007 – 2016”. The artist is currently based in Stockholm (SE).
Daniel Hinks – The Sunshiners; Code Red in Green China, 2021
Low-lying coastal areas more broadly, human-induced changes can be rapid and modify coastlines over short periods of time, outpacing the effects of SLR Sea Level Rises from Daniel Hinks’ project “The Sunshiners; Code Red in Green China”, 2021
In “The Sunshiners; Code Red in Green China”, Hinks focuses on fishing culture in China and how the increasing amount of plastic and contamination in the oceans is impacting this way of life and questions old habits and traditions. He connects the ocean to the massive plastic contamination it contains. Through his process, Hinks tries to connect the photographs with the people, the place and the reality he presents.
Daniel Hinks is a documentary photographer and visual artist fascinated by the human condition and focuses on stories he truly believes in. He looks at the state of human existence but concentrates on the resilience of the human spirit. He thinks that images can have a big impact on people and create a change.
After a diploma in Art and Design and one in Photography at Stafford College Hinks graduated with a MA in Photojournalism and documentary photography at the University of Arts in London. His work received honourable mention and was finalist at the International Photography Awards respectively in 2019 and 2022. He is currently based in China.
Kristina Knipe – Talisman, 2022
Whit and Colin with Wedding Rings from Kristina Knipes’ project “Talisman”, 2020.
In “Talisman”, Kristina Knipe constructs identity through mythology in queer communities in New Orleans. This series examines the material and visual excess created from decadences, masquerades, and healing practice as it relates to the body. The artist’s photographs trace the life of objects, spaces and the body as they are transformed from elements and are being reused.
Kristina Knipe touches the themes of intimacy, healing and community by using the mediums of photography, video and installation. For her, the photographic practice is synonymous to the healing practice of her own as well as of others and displays it in an honest and eclectic way.
Knipe got her BFA degree in photography from the New York University, where she graduated with Departmental Honours and her MFA in Studio Art at the Tulane University in New Orleans (US). In 2016 she was a finalist at the Photolucida’s Critical Mass Competition. Lately, she exhibited her work at Barristers Gallery, New Orleans (US). She is currently based in New Orleans (US).
Hilla Kurki – Almost All the Flowers in My Mother’s Garden, 2022
#056 from Hilla Kurki’s project “Almost All the Flowers in My Mother’s Garden”, 2022.
In “Almost All the Flowers in my Mother’s Garden”, the artist literally explores her mother’s garden to photograph her beloved flowers. In a way, the flowers her mother has planted, grown, and cared for start to symbolise the daughters, each being beautiful, individual living creatures. In this project Kurki is exploring relationships between mothers and their daughters.
Kurki’s work is linked to her personal story and human experiences she has been through. She reappropriates her own experiences with her camera and the process she develops to photograph. She manages to start from a personal point of view to make it feel like a universal experience everyone faces at some point of their life.
Hilla Kukri graduated with a Bachelor and a Master of Arts at the Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Finland. In 2019 she was awarded the Still Life Prize of the Festival d’Hyères (FR). She exhibited in various art fairs around Europe. Kurki is currently based in Finland.
Morag Paterson – Zero Footprint – Writing With Colour, 2022
White Asphodel from Morag Paterson’s project “Zero Footprint – Writing With Colour”, 2022
“Zero Footprint – Writing with Colour”, is a project which uses chromatography to explore and interact with pieces of naturally regenerating land in Scotland. Morag Paterson uses chromatography to explore the soils, foliage and animal life, creating embodied pieces in collaboration with nature that resonate with her wildness. She works with earth, twigs, leaves, abandoned habitats, shed feathers, and animal scat. Above all, these works are a love letter to the earth, intimate and revealing, an exercise in staying still and being, embracing the humble weed, variations in soil types, the cycle of fertilisation, and the numerous invisible microbiological actions that are the building blocks of biodiversity.
Morag Paterson is an Irish artist and photographer. For projects like “Zero Footprint – Writing with Colour”, immersion is a big part of her artistic process. She often spends weeks on end intensely observing landscape elements, delving into possibilities, experimenting, and following the ever-shifting interplay of light and matter. In the past years she has been limiting her photography to local haunts but it hasn’t restricted her possibilities.
Morag Paterson has been exhibited in many places around Scotland but also Europe including The Catstrand (UK) or Iceland for the Arts Territory exchange. She also gives talks about her photography process in diverse Photography events such as Connected Photography Event or Fotofest UK.
Synchrodogs – Impossible Installations, 2022
From Synhrodogs’ project “Impossible Installations”, 2022.
Synchrodogs work could be described as raw, dreamlike and psychedelic. The duo of photographers create images with a beautiful disregard for the ordinary. Pushing boundaries and challenging convention their pictures delve into a strange limbo between reverie and realism. Through their work they observe the new ways the Earth begins to look like as a result of human interventions into the environmental processes.
With “Impossible Installations” Synchrodogs collaborate with different Artificial Intelligences to create surrealist installations in the wild world. It is a virtual representation of human and technology merging together to create a photographic project of sculptures that are too surreal for the real world. From virtual installations in the sea to the desert, we still have this impression of being between reverie and realism.
Both members of the duo are self-taught photographers and are currently based in New York City since the war in Ukraine. Synchrodogs work has been awarded many prizes. They were winners of Feature Shoot Emerging Photography award. Synchrodogs have exhibited in many solo and group galleries around the world.
Simone Tramonte – NET-ZERO TRANSITION, 2021
An operator runs a routine check of the photobioreactor at Algalif facilities in Reykjanesbaer, Iceland. Algalif is one of the top European biotech startups that grows micro-algae to produce astaxanthin, a food supplement with antioxidant properties. Algalif plant is fully sustainable: it uses 100% clean geothermal energy and the process is carbon negative since carbon dioxide is reused to feed microalgae in a cycle that turns waste into value from Simone Tramonte’s “NET-ZERO TRANSITION”, 2020.
Simone Tramonte is an Italian photographer whose work documents social and environmental contemporary issues. Lately, his interest focuses on analysing the relations between people and the environment and aims at documenting how innovative technologies can shape them towards a more sustainable future.
Tramonte’s project “Net-Zero Transition” analyses the relationship between people, the environment and technology by showing new solutions that can lead the transition to a new era. The work tackles the issue of climate change from a positive perspective, following a path of concrete environmental, technological, scientific, social and economic progress. The project started in 2020 in Iceland where transformations were made, followed then by several countries in Europe like Denmark, France, Italy or Spain.
Simone Tramonte studied and graduated in Economics but decided to follow his passion for photography and become a professional photographer. He is based in Rome, Italy. His work has been published in international magazines such as National Geographic, Geo, Internazionale or The Guardian among others. He also exhibited his projects in different venues in Europe and won many prizes including Environmental Photographer of the Year in 2022 for the project “Net-Zero Transition”.
Sheung Yiu – Ground Truth, Or How To Resurrect A Tree, 2019 – Ongoing.
A foresters using a device to measure the distance of a tree from the center of the surveyed plot from Sheung Yiu’s project “Ground Truth, Or How To Resurrect A Tree”, 2019.
Sheung Yiu is an image centred artist and researcher. His artwork explores the act of seeing through algorithmic image systems and sense-making through networks of images. His research interests concern the increasing complexity of algorithmic image systems in contemporary digital culture.
His project “Ground Truth” is a story about “seeing something when there is nothing there”. Equipped with the power of computation, photography and hyperspectral imaging, a group of scientists in Finland set out to overcome the spatial resolution limit of satellite imagery. “Ground Truth” data is often compared to experimental results to verify the performance of a model. A successful model allows us to distinguish various features of the Earth beyond what is shown optically in a satellite image. Shedding light on the notion of ground truth in remote sensing, the visual materials are accompanied by two essays, each written by Sheung Yiu himself.
Sheung Yiu holds a Master of Arts in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art from Aalto University (FI). He is currently based in Helsinki. His work has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions across Europe and the world. In 2022 he won the Photobook Award from the Finnish Museum of Photography and The Association of Photographic Artists and was finalist at The Most Beautiful Book in Finland from the Finnish Book Art Committee.