Artist Of The Week: Rafael Schlager

An interview! Rafael Schlager is a young photographer and photography student from Vienna. In love with colours and the human body, his sensitive yet powerful work is already astonishing and has managed to set him apart. His work consists of intimate portraits, objects and spaces, all intertwined. Co existing and living off each other creating a secular universe.

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KALTBLUT: How do you define art? what does art mean to you?

Rafael: These are two really hard questions, I could spend my life thinking about them. I don’t think that there is a general definition for art.

For me, art means creating another reality you can dive into. Every piece of art shows the world in its own way directed by the artist. It’s a way to express what you have to say if you can’t put in in words. You can’t go without art.

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KALTBLUT: You live in Vienna. How does the city influence your art?

Rafael: I don’t think that Vienna as a city influenced my art that much, it depends more on your surroundings: It’s the people you spend your time with, the places you visit.

There isn’t much going on in Vienna when it comes to photography.

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KALTBLUT: Why do you like to take photos of people? What do you find interesting in them?

Rafael: I’m interested in every human being, how they become what they are and where they want to go. I think that photographs with human elements are way more interesting. The pictures you can identify with are the ones that stay in your mind. If you see yourself in a picture you can think of what it means to yourself. That’s what a good photograph is about for me.

Beside that a human can be a statue and a fluent object. The contrast between the different kind of things a human can be is what gets me excited and makes me want to experiment with.

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KALTBLUT: What are you working on at the moment?

Rafael: I always have my camera on me so I’m not working on a big project. Of course there are many things I want to do but beside that I just want to have fun picturing the people I love.

Interview by Emma E. K. Jones

cargocollective.com/schlager

schlagi.tumblr.com

instagram.com/schlagi

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