About Stefanie Priewasser
I was born in Austria in 1982 and have been living in England since 2001. I graduated from the Photography & Digital Imaging BA (Hons) course at the University of Sunderland in 2007.

Online
Other than this personal website I also maintain the FLight Photography site, originally designed to promote the degree show of the same title.
A selection of photographs from Dark Territory can be viewed at the Pavilion Online Gallery. Some alternate images from Dark Territory are included in the July 2006 group exhibit of the online magazine F-Stop.

Exhibitions
Flight, Ashburne House Sunderland, June 2007
Helios, The Biscuit Factory Newcastle, November 2007

My work is in private collections.

Publications
Flight exhibition catalogue, 2007

Awards
I received an Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2006 for a selection from Dark Territory and in the PX3 2007 for a selection of images from Of A Night. I also received the second place for the same series in their public choice awards in the self-portraiture category.


I am available for assignments on request.



Artist Statement
Personal experience and memories build a common theme in my work. Due to the largely autobiographical nature of my photography, self-portraiture has become a visual strategy I have employed repeatedly. My approach is playful. There is a dreamlike, visceral quality to much of my work. I like to leave obscure symbols and allusions in my photographs which hint on a narrative not clearly visible on first glance. I enjoy formal, deliberately constructed imagery. For my staged imagery I have acquired a large collection of props over the last years. Most of these I have made and continue to make myself, using various materials such as mod-rock, clay and papier-mâché.

Memory, false and partial memories fascinate me. Our past experiences define who we are, yet our recollections often deceive us. They fluctuate, alter and are not generally as unchanging and pristine as we imagine them to be. This discrepancy and the way in which it affects us has become a basis for much of my work.

I also continue to be intrigued by dreams. Of A Night depicts common dream scenarios recurring throughout the world. The images draw on the notion that our dreams connect us. Themes such as loss, embarrassment and violence are extremely common and all of us have experienced them at some point of our lives. Dark Territory is a series of self-portraits inspired by partial memories of my fever-dreams and nightmares. In these images I show a fantastical parallel world only existing in my imagination. Yet, in recreating these absurd scenarios dreamt up by my unconscious mind and photographing them, they become more substantial and real. Dark Territory enables an audience to take a peek into a private world made visible especially for them.

I am currently working on a portrait project at the Cambridge Youth Hostel.

Contact Information:
You can reach me at dodgystef@gmail.com