Photo Friday with Karen Knorr’s India Song
German-born American photographer, Karen Knorr, explores a common set of themes throughout her work: gender, class, history, and religion, amongst others. All of these questions are at the forefront in her vibrant and colourful series “India Song.” In this series she draws attention to the idea of “the other,” by depicting spaces meant particularly for men or women in palaces, havelis, and mausoleums. She is perhaps even drawing attention to her own position as “the other,” as the Western visitor in Eastern spaces once reserved for royalty.
Knorr inserts animals into these unlikely places to blur the line between illusion and reality, allude to Indian mythologies, and transform the atmosphere of an otherwise serious setting.
Of how she wants viewers to see her work, Knorr said:
“I want them to be amazed by the visual aesthetic of the space, and by this type of architecture. You think of the buildings of the high Renaissance, or of Notre Dame. But these places are more astounding than what we have in the West.”
You can find all of “India Song” here.
