Duologues
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.
AWARDS:
Selected, HEAD ON Photo Festival, Solo Show at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, 2022
Shortlist, BBA Gallery Photography Prize, Berlin, Germany, 2022
Winner, Passepartout Catalogue Prize, Rome, Fourth Edition, 2022
Finalist, 30 Over 50: In Context, Curated by Gordon Stettinius, 2022
Selected, 5th Online Portfolio Walk, DFA Deutsche Fotografische Akademie, 2021
Honorable Mention, Eyeshot Street Photography Open Call, 2021
Accepted, Review Santa Fe Photo Festival, 2020
Winner, LensCulture Critics’Award, 2020
Finalist, LensCulture Street Photography Competition: Singles, 2020
Finalist, Urban Photo Awards and Exhibitions: Street - Singles, 2020
Shortlist, Photo Athens 2020, Benaki Museum Athen, GR, 2020
FEATURES:
fotoforum Magazin, Ausgabe 1/2023, Nina Welch-Kling: Duologues
Camera Shake Podcast #132, YouTube Interview with Kersten Lutz and Nick Kirby. 2022
Pasadena Open Show #40: Conversation with Ellen Friedlander & Douglas Hill, 2021
Create. Photography with Daniel Sigg: Duologues - A conversation with Nina Welch-Kling, 2021
Black & White Photography Magazine (UK) June issue 253 “American Connection”, 2021
Fotografisk Tidskrift: #1/21, Instagram Recommendation, 2021
The Neomodern.com (Podcast), Everyday Photography, Every Day #107 The Rhyming Duologues of Nina Welch-Kling, 2020
Lens Magazine: Street Style, Fine Art Photography Magazine, October Issue #61, 2019
Fisheye Magazine: Instagram Gallery, 2019