Annonay, France, Sept. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
| Tania Franco Klein, born in 1990 in Mexico City, photographs isolation, psychological destabilization and other disorders most people don’t want to talk about. Instead of sweeping such negative emotions under the rug, Franco Klein prefers to show them in all their colorful glory, preferably in large format prints on the wall of a gallery. As a Canson® Infinity Ambassador, she talks about experimentation with lighting, her favorite Canson® Infinity papers and how they facilitate turning her vision into a physical embodiment of her art. Tania Franco Klein’s work has been exhibited across Europe, USA, and Mexico, including international fairs such as Photo Basel, Photo London, and during the Los Angeles Month of Photography. She lives in Mexico City and Los Angeles. Millennial tension as a contemporary condition Philosopher Byung-Chul Han says that we live in an era of exhaustion and fatigue, caused by an incessant compulsion to perform. We have left behind the immunological era, and now experience the neuronal era characterized by neuropsychiatric diseases such as depression, attention deficit, hyperactivity and bipolar disorders. All rights reserved © Tania Franco Klein Tania Franco Klein’s autobiographical photography explores this burnout culture by taking topics of disconnection in everyday life, both within ourselves and others. She also investigates the different scenarios or social practices that lead to the emotions created by this disconnection. She creates tableaux, which consists of constructing sets, altering existing locations and staging scenes. As a starting point, these scenes are created by using the psychological states of what her characters are experiencing. “The characters in my photographs have the constant need to escape, to always look outside,” says Tania. “My characters find themselves almost anonymous, melting in places, vanishing into them, constantly looking for any possibility of escape. They find themselves alone, desperate and exhausted. Constantly in an odd line between trying and feeling defeated.” |
| Tania Franco Klein’s autobiographical photography explores this burnout culture by taking topics of disconnection in everyday life, both within ourselves and others. She also investigates the different scenarios or social practices that lead to the emotions created by this disconnection. She creates tableaux, which consists of constructing sets, altering existing locations and staging scenes. As a starting point, these scenes are created by using the psychological states of what her characters are experiencing. “The characters in my photographs have the constant need to escape, to always look outside,” says Tania. “My characters find themselves almost anonymous, melting in places, vanishing into them, constantly looking for any possibility of escape. They find themselves alone, desperate and exhausted. Constantly in an odd line between trying and feeling defeated.” |
| Colorful emotions Visually, Franco Klein’s work has a retro, cinematic feel, with both her lighting and use of color carrying a lot of emotional weight. “With regards to my lighting, I like experimenting as much as I can with different methods and still maintain a similar atmosphere in my images,” says Franco Klein. “Sometimes that means working with cinema lighting, golden hour or even with my phone light if that is all I have available at that moment. Even though my characters are sometimes absent or completely still in my images, the viewer can understand the emotional catharsis my characters are experiencing and project their own story onto it, as a result of the strong visual presence of color and lighting.” |
| “I think the emotions that I depict in my work are usually the ones that are deemed as negative, but nonetheless emotions that we are all familiar with and experience alone. I think that we all drift between the duality of emotions of what we are experiencing and what we transmit to the world. I also try to explore topics that I feel are not usually talked about because I think there is an obsession with positivity and no space to learn to cope with anything that might threaten what that implies. This series has allowed me to openly talk about these ideas with people I know and also with strangers. I have realized how relieving it can be to empathize and hear the stories of others.” |
| Printing as an art form Franco Klein has been working with Canson® Infinity since it was introduced onto the Mexican market and all her work and exhibitions are printed on Canson® Infinity papers. One of her most recent exhibitions was at ROSEGALLERY in Los Angeles. On view from October 22, 2019 until February 15, 2020, the series “Proceed to the Route” was presented in large format framed and unframed prints, positioned at different heights on the gallery walls, further destabilizing the viewer. “I think is very important to have the experience to see a printed image as an object instead of on a screen,” says Franco Klein. “It gives you the opportunity to confront the image and the texture in a different way, and the relationship between photograph-object and spectator has a different space for appreciation.” |
Tania Franco Klein’s most inspiring image “Contained, Self-portrait” exists almost like a still-life image. The photograph contains two scenes. In the main scene of the photograph, the character has already vanished from the frame, while in the television, you can see the exact same image but the character is still there. In a way, she has disappeared and is trapped in the image of herself. The series is influenced by the pursuit of the "American Dream" lifestyle and contemporary practices such as leisure, consumption, media overstimulation, eternal youth, and the psychological sequels they generate in our everyday private life. The project seeks to evoke a mood of isolation, desperation, vanishing, and anxiety, through fragmented images, that exist both in a fictional and realistic way. |
| Go to Tania Franco Klein’s Ambassador page | |
| For more information on the range of papers by Canson® Infinity, please visit http://www.canson-infinity.com | |
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| About Canson® Infinity Looking back on a long history in the field of photography, today Canson® is the last pioneering photographic paper manufacturer that is still in business! In 1865, Canson® filed and acquired an international patent for the improvement of albumen papers, one of the first processes for the production of photographic paper to be developed at the time. This patent consisted of the improvement of the final rendering of the image, while avoiding the costly gold toning process generally practiced when performing the original process. Today, Canson® retains its spirit of innovation and combines centuries of experience with cutting edge technology in the manufacture of its paper. Canson® favors the use of natural minerals and the purest of materials, without optical brighteners, to provide you with printing materials that are resistant to aging. The papers and canvases within the Canson® Infinity range for photography and digital art publishing deliver unparalleled and durable printing results, as well as optimal chromatic rendering with a large color gamut, a strong D-Max and excellent image sharpness. Find out more: http://www.canson-infinity.com | |
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