Azul Azul, Figurative and Feminine Photography, Mira Loew, Bright Bodies Series, 2016

MIRA LOEW (b 1984, Vienna) Austrian born, Mira Loew began her journey as a photographer and filmmaker with audio-visual media training at the Federal Graphic Institute in Vienna, at the age of 14. After extensive travels through Asia, Loew went on to earn her BA in Fashion Photography at the London College of Fashion (2009), and finally an MA in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths, University of London (2011). Her work seeks to create a new artistic space situated within the realm of fine art photography while borrowing aesthetical means from fashion photography. The exploration of the human body is a central theme to her work, including nudes, portraiture and recently the investigation of the correlation between performance and photography. Working with her own body as well as performers and dancers, she understands the movement of the body as a means of expression. Communicating a bold and provocative vision, she is particularly concerned with the experience of inhabiting and experiencing the world through the female body. Often she combines slick imagery with dreamy, feminine form to powerful effect. Loew works with a variety of photographic materials, including medium format, 35mm, grainy black and white as well as colour films, polaroids and digital. Fascinated with the delicacy of photographic surfaces, Loew often combines different materials to create a whole new process. Frequently the photographic surface is altered, and the representation of colours manipulated to allow the materiality and the textures of the photograph to come to the forefront. She invites the viewer to challenge the idea of images as representations of reality and identity, and to explore more fully the relationship between human beauty, fragility and mortality. “The garments with which we decorate and bedeck our bodies are artificially charged with cultural significations and meanings. We like to employ these false values to construct our identities, which we chose to perform in our social environment. To remove these cultural signs means to address concerns intrinsically to the human existence, beyond our nature as social beings.” – Mira Loew Loew’s films have been screened at fashion and visual arts festivals across Europe, and her photographic work has been featured in exhibitions across Europe, Asia, Mexico & the USA. Mira Loew currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom, and is represented by DECORAZON gallery.