There is Something in the air in Prince Albert, South Africa by Cuny Janssen Photography

There is Something in the Air in Prince Albert

Photographs of a deserted cosmos in a beautifully printed and elaborately designed book – this is the fourth title from the young Dutch photographer Cuny Janssen. Her photographs recall the work of Wolfgang Tillmans in a very personal diary (of a place). Cuny Janssen travels frequently to Prince Albert, South Africa, to the middle of the “Great Karoo” an ancient seabed formed millions of years ago. It is this severe dry landscape that Jansen explores with her camera and upon which she projects stark portraits of local young people. Indeed it is the balance between fresh, young lives and unspoiled and harsh nature that lends this body of work a highly contemplative feel. The essay by Craig McEwan is a poem, an elegy for the archaic land written in geological time.

Cuny Janssen Biography
1975 Born in Nijmegen
1998 Hochschule der Künste, Berlin
1999 Assistent to Thomas Struth, Düsseldorf
1996 - 2000 Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht (HKU)
Lives and works in Amsterdam

Selected Exhibitions
2007 Portraits, 2D3D Galerie, Innsbruck
2007 Portrait und Menschenbild, Art Cologne Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne
2007 There is Something in the Air, Sabine Schmidt Galerie, Cologne (solo)
2007 New Talents, Art Cologne (solo)
2006 Finding Thoughts, Sabine Schmidt Galerie, Cologne (solo)
2006 Duchenne Kunsteditie 2006, Art Amsterdam, KunstRAI, Amsterdam
2006 Cadres, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem
2005 Best verzorgde boeken 2004, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
2005 Some Trees“, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; Neuer Aachener Kunstverein; SeARCH, Amsterdam
2005 Cadres, Custodis, Paris
2005 Finding Thoughts, The Photographers' Gallery, London (solo)
2005 Portrait/Landscape, Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen (solo)
2004 To find a home, SeARCH, Amsterdam
2003 Prix de Rome, Institut Neerlandais, Paris
2002 Femmes d‘image, Maison Européene, Paris
2002 India, Center for Fine Arts, Nijmegen (solo)

Literature
2007 There is Something in the Air in Prince Albert, Snoeck Verlag Cologne
2005 Finding Thoughts, The Photographers' Gallery London
2004 Portrait/Landscape, Schaden.com Cologne
2002 India, foto‘s van Cuny Janssen