Carol Kleinman

My work is exclusively devoted to photographing reflections on windows. I build on the long history of photographers, like Eugene Atget, who used reflective surfaces in their images. Atget’s reflections included the window frame as a point of reference. But for me, the image is the reflection itself. The frame is gone. An interplay between fantasy and reality emerges creating an other-worldly quality to the work.

I’ll walk for hours on the streets of cities like Paris, Los Angeles and New York, and not take a single photograph. I’m on a visual treasure hunt looking for "found" reflections. Then I’ll spot a complex reflection on a window, get captivated, and start photographing.

Part of the power of the photographic medium is the “illusion of reality”, the assumption that photographs are pictures of things from real life. In this age of layered, manipulated, “Photoshopped” images, I am dedicated to capturing reality through the un-manipulated “single exposure”. My message is: the world is a visually complex place and we can explore the many layers of life through the apparent layers found in reflections.

Over the past 40 years I’ve worked in many media, among them sculpture, oils, watercolors, glass, collage and construction. The type of photography I have done for the past 15 years combines a great deal of what I’ve learned from these media, particularly collage. The most exciting thing to me about my work is its direct connection to reality – the capture of a moment in time.

Education:

University of Hawaii BA

Claremont College MFA

Fine Art Teaching Credential

Associations:

Los Angeles Art Association, Gallery 825

TAG Gallery, Bergamot Station

Woman Painters West

Teaching:

American Woman's Association, Moscow, Russia

International Woman's Association, Moscow, Russia

Exhibitions:

Los Angeles

Santa Monica

Palm Desert

Washington, D.C.

Seattle, Washington

Moscow, Russia

Several awards