Photographic Shapes, Gestures, and Symbols

I often talk about how much I love being a part of the photo community. I have made such amazing friends being around this world of creativity, and today’s show is the product of those friendships. There are times that this community starts to feel like “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”, and I love that.

A few weeks ago I had Kersten Luts on the show to talk about Creative Portraits & Headshots, and that show happened because of our mutual friend Dave Williams. Dave has been on my show a few times, and introduced Kersten and I because he knew his two friends, both of whom have podcasts, would enjoy chatting.  Well, within a day of recording with Kersten he emailed to introduce me to Nina Welch-Kling, saying he thought she would be an amazing guest on Behind the Shot. That chain of introductions is what made today’s show possible, because as soon as I saw Nina’s work I knew I had to try and get her on the show.

Nina Welch-Kling is a New York City-based photographer, originally from a small town in southern Germany. Her background in fine art and architecture combined with a love for roaming the city streets inform her photographic depictions of everyday life.
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​She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Master of Architecture from The University of California, Los Angeles. Now living in New York City she continues to explore creative outlets defined by her passion for photography.

Looking at her portfolio, her fine art background shows. Her work has feeling, and emotion, built-in. One of her projects, Duologues, instantly jumped out at me. She describes the project this way:

I love to wander the streets and observe people. My series, Duologues, records fragments of these encounters. It is a play between two images creating meanings belonging to neither— a discovery process each viewer interprets differently. Reminiscent of the idea of synchronicity, an idea that describes meaningful coincidences, my pairings intentionally produce uncanny relationships.

Shooting intuitively and spontaneously, my eyes lock onto the unusual, the outstanding, and even the mundane. Frequently, dramatic lighting shapes the photographs. I collect the unrelated pieces like stems in a wildflower field – disconnected, yet bound together by their place of origin. The visuals seem familiar but particulars will distinguish them from the common.

I match the images by playing a game of Memory: finding in each image shapes, gestures, and symbols that rhyme. The rhyming may occur within the major elements in the image, such as the subject, or in minute details that otherwise might go unnoticed. By pairing two photos that occurred at different moments in time, the story that emerges can bring them together. The final sequence feels deeply connected, even though the encounters on the street were random.

The idea of doing diptychs based on the connection of shapes, gestures, and symbols in two images is wonderful, and she is a master at these pairings. So much so that choosing the subject for today’s show wasn’t easy. There are some sets that just connected to me on first glance, with color, or movement that draws the eye. Still, after much thought, I asked if we could discuss todays Duologue because the use of shape, shadow, and composition really stuck with me, for days after seeing it.

On this episode, I’m joined by New York based photographer Nina Welch-Kling to talk about her Duologues project – a set of images displayed as diptychs with shapes, gestures, and symbols that rhyme.

Connect with Nina

Website: ninaklingphotography.com
Instagram: @ninakling
Facebook: @nina.w.kling
Twitter: @NinaWK

Nina’s Book

Duologues: ninaklingphotography.com

Nina’s Photographer Pick

Harry Gruyaert: harrygruyaert-film.com

Steve’s Whiskey Pick

The Prideful Goat 6 yr Rye: gianttexas.com
Bourbon Real Talk: bourbonrealtalk.com | @bourbonrealtalk