The Griffin Museum celebrates the craft of photography in all of its forms, as well as highlighting visual artists at the beginning of their creative journey. Over the past thirty years, showcasing luminaries of photography, we have had the pleasure of working with many emerging talents. Perceiving Pathways is a series of interviews, conducted by Tori Currier, looking at some of the artists who have hung on our walls. In conversations with them about their creative paths, often beginning with their first exhibition with us, we share these conversations about the many ways art practices can evolve, and spotlight the various decisions and influences that come together to create the artworks you see.
It is our hope that these engaging conversations are an opportunity to connect with and learn from artists about themselves and their processes, cultivating deeper appreciation of their artwork and a broader understanding of the photographic arts.
Astrid Reischwitz is a lens-based artist whose work explores storytelling from a personal perspective. Using keepsakes from family life, old photographs, and storytelling strategies, she builds a visual world of memory, identity, place, and home. Her current focus is the exploration of personal and collective memory influenced by her upbringing in Germany.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Astrid about her creative path starting with her 2012 Griffin Exhibition, Street Art, up to her recent series such as Stories from the Kitchen Table and Spin Club Tapestry, in which she uses embroidered fabric and handsewn embroidery to explore her inner self and cultural past.
How would you describe your exhibition experience at the Griffin?
“Street Art” is an early portfolio, capturing various layers of urban life and the interaction and relationships between them. It was one of my first solo shows and it was very exciting to exhibit at the Griffin Museum during my early days as a photographer. It was an important learning experience for me and a great trajectory for my work.
Crouching Figure, Wynwood – Street Art, ©
Astrid Reischwitz
What did you learn from your earliest solo shows?
Be prepared, be patient, and enjoy the moment.
Tell us how your work has evolved since your 2012 exhibition, Street Art.
At first glance, my projects seem very diverse, but they are all personal and grounded in my curiosity about the world. I want to be able to work with different aspects of life as I experience it, and I think that it is important to adjust the visual language of photography accordingly. In Street Art, I observed my surroundings and looked outward, whereas in following projects, my focus became more and more about exploring my inner self and my past.
Important for my inspiration is the fact that I lived abroad and that my original home is so far away in Germany. In most of my work, there are traces of the culture I grew up in, from The Bedroom Project to The Gift of Regret. My recent portfolio now focuses on the themes of memory, culture, and heritage.
In The Gift of Regret series, you photographed found objects, including cellophane-wrapped meat and books, by way of exploring your history and values. Could you tell us a bit about how you selected these objects? Was the process at all similar to choosing bedrooms to photograph in The Bedroom Project?
Regret #4, The Gift of Regret © Atstrid Reischwitz
In The Gift of Regret, I deliberately chose everyday objects that symbolize changes and lessons in my life. By wrapping or presenting them as gifts, I preserve and honor them in my memory before symbolically giving away the regret.
In The Bedroom Project, I created intimate portraits of the couples and individuals through their private sanctuaries, where secrets are shared and dreams are dreamt. The approach for this series was different as it was always an unknown and a surprise what I might encounter. Even the short amount of time I spent in these private rooms left me with a better understanding of the individual.
2020 – 2021 were reflective years for many of us. They, too, have shown us how supportive art communities are. Which new thoughts or discoveries about your work/practice and role in the photography community will inform it in the New Year?
© Atstrid Reischwitz
I was very grateful to see that most institutions like the Griffin Museum continued to showcase photographic work during the pandemic and put up a wonderful online learning program that made it possible to participate from anywhere in the world. I plan to take advantage of some these programs from the US or even from Germany in the new year.
As part of a global audience, what does your ideal online learning program look like?
I enjoy online classes that help to enrich my understanding of photography. That can be anything from a critique class to a one day workshop about a specific topic.
Reflecting on your path so far, what is one hope or ambition for 2022?
I hope to evaluate the possibility of creating a book based on my recent work Spin Club Tapestry. It would be a new challenge for me.
Spinneklump | Spin Club Tapestry, © Astrid Reischwitz
Regarding Street Art, you shared with us that you chose a slow shutter speed to create a relationship between the motion of people fleeting by and the brevity of the artwork. What else has informed either your style or subject matter, ranging from life experiences to favorite media, that viewers wouldn’t perhaps expect?
In my Street Art project, I endeavored to capture the connection between street art and its surrounding and the reaction of people encountering the artwork. Connecting different aspects is an important element in all of my work.
Years ago, my mother handed me a pile of embroidered tablecloths, a family custom that I disregarded as old fashioned. I never thought that it would surface again. It did! While I was working on Stories from the Kitchen Table, a series about my family heritage, the fabric surfaced again.
In the composite images of Stories from the Kitchen Table present and past stand side by side but are often connected with binding elements, with fragmented images of vintage fabric.
I started to see the importance of the embroidered fabric as a way to “stitch” together the present and past and to build a bridge to the future. Tablecloths, napkins and wall hangings have been passed down from generation to generation. Many times, theses fabrics were created as part of a dowry and kept safe for years in a beautiful trunk. For centuries, women used the symbolism in their embroidery as a form to express themselves and to communicate. Learning the language of embroidery, the technique and pattern was part of their education; it was their legacy.
This newfound appreciation of needlework informed the creation of the series Spin Club Tapestry by including hand-sewn embroidery on the photograph. The use of embroidery is a way to overcome the barrier of memory, the barrier of time and to learn how the culture I grew up in influenced me. It deepened my understanding and made me feel more connected to my heritage.
Shadow and Light | Stories from the Kitchen Table, © Astrid Reischwitz
In Stories from the Kitchen Table, how did you decide which images and fabrics to put side by side? Were overall narrative and visual storytelling considered?
The concept of the images focuses on a dialogue between present and past, between my personal perspective today, and what happened in the past. Present and past stand side by side, connected by binding elements and/or “stitched” together by fragmented images of fabric.
I often start with an old family photo and see if I remember anything about the scene and what grabs my attention. Is there an underlying theme, a story that comes to surface? Once I have identified the basic story, will look for an image that compliments the tale I would like to tell. The choice of fabric supports the general design of each image.
By bridging the past and present in series like Stories from the Kitchen Table and Spin Club Tapestry, which aspects of your inner self, as it relates to your family history and culture, have become significant to your work’s narrative?
One aspect of my inner self is my desire to answer questions about my past which helps me to understand my own personal goals and how the culture I grew up in shaped me.
In Spin Club Tapestry, I’m specifically interested in the role of women in that society and the way they found strength through community despite many limitations and hardships.
Based on personal experiences, another topic that I’m interested in is exploring the psychological impact of WWII on the war children and following generations. Experiences of external and internal destruction live on in my generation and are the essence of unprocessed history that I photograph in the series Inheritance.
Portrait #3 | Inheritance, © Astrid Reischwitz
You’re a photographer, so you’re intrinsically a viewer too! How have your ways of viewing and engaging with photographic art changed over the years? Have they been shaped by how you might prefer your own work to be viewed?
When looking at photography now, I’m curious to learn more about the ideas behind the picture or the series. Photography is so much more than capturing a single image. It’s a way of communicating, a way to connect with the world, and a way to share one’s perspective.
I approach my work as visual storytelling with photography as a central element and perceive myself as a lens-based artist, increasingly using other elements including composites, embroidery, and installations.
How do you define “lens-based artist”? It certainly sounds encompassing of your work’s elements!
I like the term “lens-based” because it leaves a door open to include art techniques that go beyond photography and the classic photographic print. This is especially true for my embroidered work for “Spin Club Tapestry”, as well as installations that I have included in exhibitions.
As creatives, we’re always looking to grow. So, what is one metric of artistic growth as a photographer?
I hope that people will be inspired to contemplate on the work and the concepts behind them, and connect on a personal level by reflecting on their own personal stories.
Astrid Reischwitz is a lens-based artist whose work explores storytelling from a personal perspective. Using keepsakes from family life, old photographs, and storytelling strategies, she builds a visual world of memory, identity, place, and home. Her current focus is the exploration of personal and collective memory influenced by her upbringing in Germany.
Reischwitz has exhibited at national and international museums and galleries including the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Newport Art Museum, Griffin Museum of Photography, Danforth Art Museum, Photographic Resource Center, The Center for Fine Art Photography (CO), Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Center for Photographic Art (CA), FotoNostrum, BBA Gallery, Dina Mitrani Gallery and Gallery Kayafas.
She has received multiple awards, including the 2020 Griffin Award at the Griffin Museum of Photography and the Multimedia Award at the 2020 San Francisco Bay International Photo Awards. Her series “Spin Club Tapestry” was selected as a Juror’s Pick at the 2021 LensCulture Art Photography Awards and is the Series Winner at the 2021 Siena International Photo Awards. She is a four-time Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 photographer and is a Mass Cultural Council 2021 Artist Fellowship Finalist in Photography.
Reischwitz is a graduate of the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, with a PhD in Chemistry. After moving to the US, she fell in love with photography and began her journey to explore life through creating art.
She is represented by Gallery Kayafas in Boston, Massachusetts.
Follow Astrid’s Path to Creativity:
Website: www.reischwitzphotography.com
Instagram: @astridreischwitz
Tori Currier is a curatorial intern at the Griffin Museum of Photography and a senior at Smith College majoring in Art History. Passionate about the photographic arts and public education, she strives to support artists at the Griffin by developing educational features which spotlight their work and amplify their voices.
Instagram: @torilcurrier
