Theme Table of Content
VJIC Table of Content
Introduction
Visit Exhibition: “Mysterious Nights and Shining Days”
I have known Erika Anna Schumacher since 2013. At that time, she had a wonderful exhibition at the German Consulate General in Miami. I fell in love with her photographs immediately. They are quiet, subtle, and sensitive. I was able to enter her atmospheric worlds very easily. Erika has the wonderful gift of seeing sensual moments in everyday life and then capturing them very precisely in her photographss. Nothing is left to chance in her street photography.
Since then, we have been connected professionally and as friends. I was very happy about her outstanding success when she won the LensCulture international street photography award 2020. Finally, after a long Covid break, all prize winners were presented in a large exhibition in New York City in May. Of course, I flew to New York to celebrate this wonderful moment with her.
I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity to introduce you to Erika Anna Schumacher today.
Artist Statement
I read cities and moments
like a surfer reads a wave.
As an artist and photographer, I am interested in the side streets, the unseen, the unknown. I am looking for images of the edges of perception, the overlooked, underestimated beauty of the everyday. With my work, I want to address aspects of life that often cannot be experienced through verbal interaction or logical thinking – and which nevertheless form an essential part of our human condition. I am inspired by light, colours, poetry, music, nature, people, and cities and all kinds of art.
Wandering through cities like Paris, Mombasa or Miami makes me feel alive.
I am fascinated how a story emerges from the perception of a detail. Examining the layers of an urban cosmos and reconnecting them in new ways is my way of creating a new awareness.
Influenced by the sensuality of painting and the scenery of film, I use the camera to document images of the city that reflect my inner images. I create scenes and sequences that emanate from a narrative and still maintain their poetic mystery.
View Exhibition: “Mysterious Nights and Shining Days”
Interview:
Recorded: July 2022
Length: 29:21
View Exhibition: “Mysterious Nights and Shining Days”
Biography
Born in the countryside in Germany, I longed to travel and see the world. I fell in love with photography and the variety of urban life. In 2010, I graduated as a master student in photography, painting and interdisciplinary art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Essen, Germany.
I run a studio in Düsseldorf/Germany, following my passion to travel, photograph and exhibit worldwide. My work is held in collections in Germany, France, Norway, Russia, Singapore and the USA.
I love to share my photography skills in workshops and master classes.
In 2018 I was awarded an artist residency at the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow. There I created new series such as “Anonymous Sculptures”, “Real/Surreal” and “Portrait&Architecture on Susan Sontag”, which were presented in the final exhibition.
During several stays at Miami, I worked on my projects “Miami lost&found”, “Backstreets Miami”, and “Miami Night/Urban Cinema”. In 2020 I was selected by the Women Street Photographers organisation for a New York Residency. The resulting series won me the international LensCulture Street Photography Award. Besides the worldwide recognition of this work, I was published in the USA in magazines and newspapers such as The New York Time and the Washington Post.