Karin Apollonia Müller was born in Heidelberg in
1963, and grew up as the daughter of a sea captain. She studied design Photography
and Film at the University of Essen and received a Masters degree with honors
in photography in 1992. Since 1995 she has spent much of her time living in
the Western United States supported initially by a DAAD fellowship and later
by the Getty and the Lannan Foundation. Müller's first completely realized
body of work and monograph is entitled Angels in Fall, series of large
scale color photographs of urban Los Angeles and Western oceanside landscapes.
These quiet observations investigate the space where people and urban structures
meet natiure. Her powerful photographs have a muted palette and low in contrast.
By juxtaposing the human figure (actual or implied) subtly positioned within
a complex landscape, the images evoke a sense of displacement. The compositions
are subtle and evocative, possessing a haunting potency. As a foreigner, Müller's
"visitor" status in Los Angeles is expressed by a sense of alienation and
beauty. Müller's interest in the intersection of the natural landscape with
urbanization is a hot topic with environmentalists and city planners, but
in her hands the issues transcend any analytic framework and become eternal
and universal musings. In addition to her work in the United States, Muller
has worked and taught in Germany, Italy, Western China and more recently Los
Angeles.
Bunkerscapes 2003 [view
images]
Terra Cognita 1999-2002 [view
images]
Angels in Fall 1995-1998 [view
images]
Seascapes 1996-2002 [view
images]