The Artist
I am a French artist and photographer based in London.
As an artist, I am interested in personal themes like pain and resilience, emotions, relationships, and vulnerabilities.
As a photographer, I thrive on human interactions, so I do enjoy documentary, event, and portrait photography.
From 2001 to 2020, I completed various art courses and got particularly interested in conceptual art and photography.
In 2022, I completed a photography MA (with Merit) with the University of Falmouth in Cornwall, UK. My main MA projects focused on social documentary and portrait photography. I explored the theme of racism and, for one module, worked in collaboration with Nawroz Oramarî, a Kurdish singer, to produce a photo-book, combining his words with my photographs.
So far, my pictures have been published on the Daily Telegraph website, the Sunday Mirror Notebook supplement, the Pick Me Up magazine, the BBC News, The View from the Shard, Tortz, Reventure and EPP websites, the French travel guide Petit Futé Rome 2020, a SOAS newsletter and the German newspapers Frankfurter Rundschau and Westfälische Nachrichten, as well as on my own websites: FrenchWorldOnline.com and AKCMServices.com.
I have exhibited in the Espacio, Cowcross, 1885, Lauderdale and RK Burt galleries in London. I have also exhibited in the Fotoklub Gallery in Split, Croatia.
Email: AnnieGentilKraatz@outlook.com
Instagram: @AnnieGentilKraatz
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniegentilkraatz
Website: AnnieGentilKraatz.com
The Exhibition
Having recently completed a photography MA with the University of Falmouth, in Cornwall, I have developed an exciting new body of work focusing on social documentary topics.
One project is based on my research on the theme of racism and is entitled: ‘Reflections on Racism” and another one is a collaboration with the Kurdish singer Nawroz Oramari and is entitled: ‘Nawroz’. Both projects resulted in the production of photography booklets, which should be available to buy at the exhibition. In artFix, I will also exhibit earlier fine art photographs like landscape pictures (urban and natural) or flowers. Most of my work is produced in black and white although some photographs do include touches of colour.
‘Reflections on Racism’
In January 2020, on the eve of the Holocaust Memorial Day, my local bank and a Jamaican restaurant in South-East London were targeted with white supremacist, anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi graffiti. Four months later, George Floyd, an African American man in the United States, was killed by a policeman, triggering a general outcry worldwide. Many Black Lives Matter demonstrations were to follow.
As someone who has directly experienced racism, I wanted to document this particular point in time, when both right-wing ideologies were attempting to gain a foothold and the Black Lives Matter movement was gathering critical momentum.
I decided to work within my network in London, looking for people who could give an insight into the racism they had experienced and the reflections and ideas they had about this topic. I conducted a series of conversations, interviews, and photoshoots.
Initially trained as a linguist, I soon realised that words and quotes from the interviews were particularly impactful and could be highly effective combined with the black and white pictures of the participants. My initial focus was the experience and reflections of people of African descent, Afro-descendants. I entitled the project ‘Reflections on Racism’: reflections of the participants and reflections I wanted to trigger in the viewers.
With these combinations of images and texts, I aim to share and convey the impact of racism on the lives of the sitters, the seriousness of the topic, and a certain strength. I also want to trigger reflections in the viewers. Although it is not a clear call to action, by raising awareness, I am hoping for a more inclusive society.
‘Nawroz’
Researching for my photo project ‘Reflections on Racism’, I decided to focus my attention on the Citizens of the World Choir, a choir of refugees based in Greenwich. That is how I met Nawroz Oramarî, one of the choir singers. From the first interview and photoshoot, I found his life, voice, and energy fascinating. I decided to create a project and a photo book all around him.
I soon realised that Nawroz was suffering from a deep depression and that singing was his only excitement in life.
Nawroz is a Kurdish singer who used to be a freedom fighter for Kurdistan. He has been arrested, tortured, and persecuted, and he found refuge in London 30 years ago.
During the Iraq war, He worked as a translator for the British army in harsh conditions and constant fear. It was heart-wrenching for him to see the devastations in Mosul, where he had lived as a teenager.
Despite these painful memories, his voice is full of passion, emotions, and strength. He is an entirely different person when he sings. And, as he said it so eloquently:
“If you are a singer, you have extra power. You can talk with thousands of people and have an influence, emotionally, on thousands of people, and change their minds, their hearts. I mean, our job is to deal with the hearts because we are not talking about logics. It’s hearts. It’s emotional. It’s feelings. We talk about the feelings of people.”
May Nawroz’ voice resonate for many more years.
Early Work
My early fine art black and white photographs consist mainly in flowers and landscapes encountered during my many travels, like urban landscape pictures taken in Berlin or natural landscapes taken during hikes in England.
I believe that when we look around, our emotions are everywhere, and the world is a reflection of our inner feelings.