User:El Yudkin/Alina Gross

Alina Casselmann, known professionally as Alina Gross (born 22 February 1980, in Chernivtsi), is a German photographer of Ukrainian-Jewish extraction. She is known for her work on the human body and has been featured in notable publications such as Vogue and Monopol, working with figures like Mert Alas, Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry and Sydney LaFaire. According to her own statements, she was artistically influenced in particular by Frida Kahlo, Robert Mapplethorpe and Louise Bourgeois.

Early Life and Education

Gross was born in 1980 in Chernivtsi, Bukovina. She experienced the heyday of the Soviet Union as a child, with early memories shaped by Mikhail Gorbachev’s communist rule. In 1992, Gross emigrated with her family to Germany, where she now works. Gross graduated in 2006 with a design degree, specializing in staged and documentary photography from the University of Wuppertal

Work: Themes and style

Much of Alina Gross’ body of work explores the human body. Largely shooting the body in its nude form, manipulated by touch or decorated by floral compositions, as an extension of the female form or, in some cases, a sort of obscuring device to hint at sensuality and oneness, rather than outright sexuality.^[1]

By featuring the female form extensively, particularly her own journey through the changing physicality brought on by motherhood, Gross repositions the perspective on the human body from taboo to natural, saying, “My statement is: all of these processes are natural and do not have to be taboo.”^[2] In doing so, she has aimed never to forsake the importance of sexuality in the natural human lifestyle, without every aiming to overtly sexualise her photography.

Gross has featured extensively in many European editions of Vogue, including Vogue Portugal ‘The Beauty of Imperfection’, Vogue Germany ‘Bleeding Love’ and other global titles, such as ‘Our Body Is a Wonderland’ in Allure Korea^[3], ‘Aphrodisiacs’ in nakid magazine^[4] and ‘Birth of Mother’ in Curated by GIRLS.^[5]

Career

After gaining experience as a model in 1998, Gross embarked on a career in photography, both in front of and behind the camera. Still working heavily in self-portraiture today, the artist’s work sees the artist-subject divide coalesce.

Building on her earliest experiences, Gross completed an internship with Thomas Philippi (advertising and industrial photography) and assisted with Thomas Rusch in Paris.

From 2007 until 2012, she worked as an in-house photographer at ThomsenModelsGmbH in Düsseldorf and Hamburg.

Since 2012, Gross has worked as a freelance photographer and guest lecturer of fashion photography at the Düsseldorf Fashion Design Institute^[6] and most recently at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences.^[7] As a freelance photographer, Gross’ body of work has broached themes such as motherhood, sexuality and the relationship between societal perspectives on each. This has positioned her as a prominent voice in the body positivity movement.

Personal Life

Gross lives with her husband in Bochum. They have three children.

Exhibitions

2022: Lisbon, Thirdbase, “New Femininity”
2021: Berlin, Alte Münze, “Corona Culture”
2021: Athens, Siilk Gallery, “QueerArchive”
2020: London, “how to save the Vagina Museum”
2020: Cologne, Photoszene Festival, #picturesfromhome
2018: Milan, Base Milano, #anewrenaissance
2015: Düsseldorf, NRW Forum, ego update #selfieausstellung (selfie exhibition)
2013: Paris, Fotofever Festival, Carrousel du Louvre
2012: Legnica/Poland, “Näher” (“Closer”)
2009: Wuppertal, Backstubengalerie, “Der nackte Mensch” (“The Naked Man”)
2007: Düsseldorf, IGEDO Fashion Fairs, CPD
2006: Wuppertal, Artfabrik
2004: Cologne, Sande Gallery, Canon ProFashional Photo Award

Awards

2022: Berlin, GoSeeAwards, Silver / Beauty in Everything
2018: Milan, Photovoguefestival Finalist / Anewrenaissance
2018: Hasselblad Masters Finalist Category Fashion & Beauty
2004: Canon ProFashional Photoaward

Hardcover

The Beauty of Imperfection. Snap Collective Publishing, 2022. ISBN-13: 978-1-915600-10-3
Giorgio Bonomi, The solitary body. The self-timer in contemporary photography, vol. III, 2021 Rubbettino Editore, pages 84, 274 (Self-portraits of Alina Gross during her pregnancy)
- Giorgio Bonomi, Il corpo solitario (vol III). L'autoscatto nella fotografia contemporanea. Rubbettino Arte Contemporanea, 2021, ISBN 978-88-498-7129-6
Riga Photography Biennial / NEXT 2021, No future. The trials and tribulations of photography on instagram, Essay by Jorg Kolberg, pages 8–18
The Curators Journal. EROS, 2021, page 49
Blickfang: Deutschlands Beste Fotografen 2019/2020 (Germany's Best Photographers 2019/2020), Norman Beckmann Verlag & Design, ISBN 978-3-939028-88-8 (Alina Gross: pages 151,152)
Inszenierte Fotografie. Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Prof. Susan Lamér 2001–2006. pages 74–75

References

External links

Personal web pages

Publications (selection)

VOGUE

PHOTO VOGUE: Alina Gross
VOGUE Singapore, life-aquatic-escapist-blue-hued-beauty-looks (2022) (Print: Vogue Singapore. Blue Issue, May 2022, No. 14. pages 76–84)
VOGUE Portugal, Fauna & Flora, May 2021 (Fashion Film Fauna & Flora) (Print: Vogue Portugal. Pink Issue, May 2021, No. 221, pages 158–171)
VOGUE Portugal, Dreamland, March 2021 (as Video) (Print: Vogue Portugal. Creativity Issue, March 2021, No. 291, pages 256–269)
VOGUE Portugal, Alina Gross: Our body is a wonderland, November 2020 (Print: „The Beauty of Imperfection“, No. 216. pages 156–167)
VOGUE Germany, Bleeding Love. Die kritischen Tage, September 2020 (joint project by Jovana Reisinger and Alina Gross)
vogue.com: Mert Alas’s The Quarantine Days Is the Crowdsourced Photography Project We Need Right Now (April 2020)

Other

Videos

Miscellaneous

[1] Alina Gross - Between Corporeal and Ethereal

[2] ALINA GROSS: Seduction ‘au naturel’

[3] www.allurekorea: OUR BODY IS A WONDERLAND

[4] Magazine: aphrodisiacs-2/

[5] Curated by GIRLS

[6] Fashion school in Düsseldorf

[7] Hochschule Niederrhein. University of Applied Sciences

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