February 10, 2005 • March 20, 2005

DORTHE ALSTRUP: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM JAPAN, CANADA, DENMARK AND THE UNITED STATES

Dorthe Alstrup was born in Denmark, and has a BA in Advertising and Editorial Photography from Kent Institute of Art and Design in England, and a Master of Fine Arts in photography, from Rhode Island School of Design. She has been Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and currently teaches in the Photography Department at RISD.

Dorthe Alstrup belongs to a younger generation of artists who often stage their photographs, blurring the line between fiction and reality. Using ordinary people as opposed to actors, the resulting work is reminiscent of still photographs from movies but, in their theatricality, often goes further in being more unpredictable and ambiguous.

The artist has explained, “What interest me are the nuances and subtleties of human relationships, the moments of tension that are created when individuals exist within the same environment. My images are clearly staged events portraying private moments within public interior spaces and shared living spaces.”