User:El Yudkin/Alina Gross

Alina Casselmann, known professionally as Alina Gross (born 22 February 1980, in Chernivtsi), is a German photographer of Ukrainian-Jewish extraction. She is known for her work on the human body and has been featured in notable publications such as Vogue and Monopol, working with figures like Mert Alas, Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry and Sydney LaFaire. According to her own statements, she was artistically influenced in particular by Frida Kahlo, Robert Mapplethorpe and Louise Bourgeois.

Early Life and Education
Gross was born in 1980 in Chernivtsi, Bukovina. She experienced the heyday of the Soviet Union as a child, with early memories shaped by Mikhail Gorbachev’s communist rule. In 1992, Gross emigrated with her family to Germany, where she now works. Gross graduated in 2006 with a design degree, specializing in staged and documentary photography from the University of Wuppertal

Work: Themes and style
Much of Alina Gross’ body of work explores the human body. Largely shooting the body in its nude form, manipulated by touch or decorated by floral compositions, as an extension of the female form or, in some cases, a sort of obscuring device to hint at sensuality and oneness, rather than outright sexuality.

By featuring the female form extensively, particularly her own journey through the changing physicality brought on by motherhood, Gross repositions the perspective on the human body from taboo to natural, saying, “My statement is: all of these processes are natural and do not have to be taboo.” In doing so, she has aimed never to forsake the importance of sexuality in the natural human lifestyle, without every aiming to overtly sexualise her photography.

Gross has featured extensively in many European editions of Vogue, including Vogue Portugal ‘The Beauty of Imperfection’, Vogue Germany ‘Bleeding Love’ and other global titles, such as ‘Our Body Is a Wonderland’ in Allure Korea, ‘Aphrodisiacs’ in nakid magazine and ‘Birth of Mother’ in Curated by GIRLS.

Career
After gaining experience as a model in 1998, Gross embarked on a career in photography, both in front of and behind the camera. Still working heavily in self-portraiture today, the artist’s work sees the artist-subject divide coalesce.

Building on her earliest experiences, Gross completed an internship with Thomas Philippi (advertising and industrial photography) and assisted with Thomas Rusch in Paris.

From 2007 until 2012, she worked as an in-house photographer at ThomsenModelsGmbH in Düsseldorf and Hamburg.

Since 2012, Gross has worked as a freelance photographer and guest lecturer of fashion photography at the Düsseldorf Fashion Design Institute and most recently at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. As a freelance photographer, Gross’ body of work has broached themes such as motherhood, sexuality and the relationship between societal perspectives on each. This has positioned her as a prominent voice in the body positivity movement.

Personal Life
Gross lives with her husband in Bochum. They have three children.

Exhibitions

 * 2022: Lisbon, Thirdbase, “New Femininity”
 * 2021: Berlin, Alte Münze, “Corona Culture”
 * 2021: Athens, Siilk Gallery, “QueerArchive”
 * 2020: London, “how to save the Vagina Museum”
 * 2020: Cologne, Photoszene Festival, #picturesfromhome
 * 2018: Milan, Base Milano, #anewrenaissance
 * 2015: Düsseldorf, NRW Forum, ego update #selfieausstellung (selfie exhibition)
 * 2013: Paris, Fotofever Festival, Carrousel du Louvre
 * 2012: Legnica/Poland, “Näher” (“Closer”)
 * 2009: Wuppertal, Backstubengalerie, “Der nackte Mensch” (“The Naked Man”)
 * 2007: Düsseldorf, IGEDO Fashion Fairs, CPD
 * 2006: Wuppertal, Artfabrik
 * 2004: Cologne, Sande Gallery, Canon ProFashional Photo Award

Awards

 * 2022: Berlin, GoSeeAwards, Silver / Beauty in Everything
 * 2018: Milan, Photovoguefestival Finalist / Anewrenaissance
 * 2018: Hasselblad Masters Finalist Category Fashion & Beauty
 * 2004: Canon ProFashional Photoaward

Hardcover

 * The Beauty of Imperfection. Snap Collective Publishing, 2022. ISBN-13: 978-1-915600-10-3
 * Giorgio Bonomi, The solitary body. The self-timer in contemporary photography, vol. III, 2021 Rubbettino Editore, pages 84, 274 (Self-portraits of Alina Gross during her pregnancy)
 * Giorgio Bonomi, Il corpo solitario (vol III). L'autoscatto nella fotografia contemporanea. Rubbettino Arte Contemporanea, 2021, ISBN 978-88-498-7129-6
 * Riga Photography Biennial / NEXT 2021, No future. The trials and tribulations of photography on instagram, Essay by Jorg Kolberg, pages 8–18
 * The Curators Journal. EROS, 2021, page 49
 * Blickfang: Deutschlands Beste Fotografen 2019/2020 (Germany's Best Photographers 2019/2020), Norman Beckmann Verlag & Design, ISBN 978-3-939028-88-8 (Alina Gross: pages 151,152)
 * Inszenierte Fotografie. Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Prof. Susan Lamér 2001–2006. pages 74–75

Personal web pages

 * Official Website of Alina Gross
 * Instagram: Alina Gross

VOGUE

 * PHOTO VOGUE: Alina Gross
 * VOGUE Singapore, life-aquatic-escapist-blue-hued-beauty-looks (2022) (Print: Vogue Singapore. Blue Issue, May 2022, No. 14. pages 76–84)
 * VOGUE Portugal, Fauna & Flora, May 2021 (Fashion Film Fauna & Flora) (Print: Vogue Portugal. Pink Issue, May 2021, No. 221, pages 158–171)
 * VOGUE Portugal, Dreamland, March 2021 (as Video) (Print: Vogue Portugal. Creativity Issue, March 2021, No. 291, pages 256–269)
 * VOGUE Portugal, Alina Gross: Our body is a wonderland, November 2020 (Print: „The Beauty of Imperfection“, No. 216. pages 156–167)
 * VOGUE Germany, Bleeding Love. Die kritischen Tage, September 2020 (joint project by Jovana Reisinger and Alina Gross)
 * vogue.com: Mert Alas’s The Quarantine Days Is the Crowdsourced Photography Project We Need Right Now (April 2020)

Other

 * models.com: Alina Gross (many links to editorials in fashion magazines)
 * feminists.co: Artist Feature: Alina Gross
 * femalefashioncollective.com
 * houseoftheodora.com/alina-gross
 * talenthouse.com
 * Curated By Girls: Alina Gross. Tentacled
 * infringe.com: creator. alina gross
 * gosee.de/alina-gross
 * page-online
 * hazegallery: Artist-Spotlight: Photographer Alina Gross
 * Coeur & Art: ALINA GROSS: Seduction 'au naturel’
 * collater.al
 * espaciorara.com/raraautorxs-entrevista-alina-gross
 * Φωτογραφίες Queer Έργων που Ξεχειλίζουν Σεξουαλικότητα, Γυμνό και Ερωτισμό
 * Gender and Artistic Development: An Interview with Alina Gross (2022)
 * Kunst entsteht aus meinem Leben (Art arises from my life), July 2022
 * MEMENTO MORI (November 2021)
 * compulsivecontents.com: Alina Gross - Between Corporeal and Ethereal, November 2021
 * fotofemmeunited.com: Alina Gross. Visions of Femininity, March 2021
 * allure Korea: OUR BODY IS A WONDERLAND, February 2021 (Print: No. 211, pages 56–61)
 * monopol. Magazin für Kunst und Leben: Insta-Watchlist Alina Gross. Ich stelle unrealistische Körperbilder infrage (I challenge unrealistic body images), November 2020
 * PhMuseum: Dazed and confused. Alina Gross, 2020
 * kwerfeldein: Jede Geburt ist eine Geburt der Mutter, October 2019
 * FORM STIL: Kenn’se schon … Fotografin ALINA GROSS (Do you already know ... photographer ALINA GROSS), October 2018
 * glamour affair, Milan: AHAVA PROJECT, 2018 (AHAVA is the hebrew word for love)
 * Musenblätter: Die Bilder-Welten der Alina Gross. Der Versuch einer Annäherung, November 2011 (The Image-Worlds of Alina Gross. An approach.)

Videos

 * Interview with Daria Migalova about female gaze, feminism, fashion business and more ... (December 2022)
 * INTERVIEW WITH ELKE KUHLEN; PHOTOSZENE Köln (Summer 2022)
 * ALINA GROSS a „Ciao Fotografo“ - Da modella a fotografa (Fotochiacchiere), September 2020
 * Alina Gross, interview for purplehaze Magazine, April 2020

Miscellaneous

 * Trunk Archive NYC
 * vaginamuseum.co.uk
 * femalephotoclub.com
 * curatedbygirls.com/follow-the-white-rabbit
 * feminists.co/feminist-zine

Category:Photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia Category:Artists from Düsseldorf Category:Postmodern artists Category:Nude photography Category:German women photographers Category:German photographers Category:Fine art photographers Category:Fashion photographers Category:Portrait photographers Category:20th-century German photographers Category:21st-century German photographers Category:20th-century women photographers Category:21st-century women photographers Category:German women artists Category:20th-century German women artists Category:21st-century German women artists Category:20th-century German artists Category:21st-century German artists Category:20th-century German women Category:21st-century German women Category:20th-century photographers Category:21st-century photographers Category:German artists Category:German contemporary artists Category:German female models Category:Models (profession) Category:Jewish women artists Category:20th-century German Jews Category:German Ashkenazi Jews Category:German Jews Category:20th-century German women Category:1980 births Category:Living people