artist statement

ARTIST STATEMENT

An immigrant to the United States I have lived in the Santa Clara Valley, California, for almost thirty years. In my current projects I attempt to use my insider-outsider perspective to capture everyday life in public spaces in different parts of Santa Clara county.

Two things in the urban landscape have been striking to me: The complex, yet often overlooked, layers of history and cultural influences, and the amount of unused space you will find in the middle of busy, and expensive, Silicon Valley. Despite a population of a million people, San Jose has a lot of open, empty, space. Alviso, an incorporated neighborhood in San Jose with a population of a couple of thousand people, is sinking, fading, and empty. In its glory days Alviso was an important port, but now nature is slowly taking over.

One of my short series shows beach huts on the shore in Skanör, Sweden. The huts are owned by local families, and passed down from generation to generation. They are used as changing huts, and for storing simple equipment.

The collection of iphone photos was shown at the Matre Gallery, Atlanta, GA, in the fall of 2010. They are also part of Stephanie Robert’s book The Art of Iphoneography. The book has been translated to more than ten languages.

 

Charlotta Kratz, March 2023.