Kathryn Coers Rossman
Photographer @ Freelancer / Based in Bloomington, IN, USA
BIOGRAPHY: Kathryn Coers Rossman (website: kathryncoersrossman.com, email: hello@kathryncoersrossman.com, insta: @kathryncoersrossman) is a conceptual photographer and creative director in Bloomington, IN, USA. She studied modernism,...
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Focus:
Photographer, Creative Director
About
Available in: Bloomington, IN, USA
Focused on:
Photographer, Creative Director
Coverage Regions:
USA & Canada
Languages Spoken: English, Kiswahili
Years of experience: More than 10
BIOGRAPHY:
Kathryn Coers Rossman (website: kathryncoersrossman.com, email: hello@kathryncoersrossman.com, insta: @kathryncoersrossman) is a conceptual photographer and creative director in Bloomington, IN, USA. She studied modernism, literature and urbanism in graduate school at New York University and design and the visual arts via the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) academic program. She was the official event photographer for the 2021 Indiana Hot Air Balloon Festival, a featured artist at the 2021 Indy Rama home design show, and was the first Emerging Artist Grant recipient named by the City of Bloomington Arts Commission. Kathryn's project "National Anthem: Punk Patriotism!" was featured in Polyester magazine in May 2023. "The Majorette" (2022) was included in Cerulean: A Winter Photography Exhibit by Pattern magazine. She is a contributor at Bloom magazine.
Kathryn is happily married and is the proud mother of a four-year-old son. A Hoosier, she left her home state for twenty years, working in Silicon Valley, New York City's East Village and South Florida, before returning to Indiana. Her cousin, photojournalist Michael Coers (deceased), won the Pulitzer Prize documenting school integration for the Louisville Courier Journal in 1975.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Known for images showcasing fantastic beauty and sweeping neglect, the allure Kathryn displays may hide an insidious evil. Emphasizing theatricality and absorption, bordering on fantasy and surrealism, her work is less about identity, politics and individualism than collective escape. She problematically offers nostalgia as a distraction from unpleasant realities and enjoys mixing tangible objects both hard and soft with thematic elements that are cozy and challenging, highbrow and kitsch. The self-described "Lisa Frank" of photo editing, she creates cinematic compositions and utilizes vivid colors that pop!
Her portraits occur within perfectly manicured sets with curated vintage clothing, props and backdrops built around her subjects like oversized dollhouses. She learned photography as an eBay reseller during The Great Recession, selling thrifted jewelry to Courtney Love at Chateau Marmont and frequently landing on Etsy's front page. She was self-employed as a product photographer for a decade before compiling her fine art and editorial portfolio.
APPROACH TO PHOTOJOURNALISM AND VISUAL STORYTELLING:
Kathryn, influenced by 1980s punk subculture, wants to engage the most provocative topics she can find. She believes that individualism is a disempowering, isolating force. Kathryn tries to build bridges by displaying our inherent commonality. She believes photojournalism should be a tool to challenge, rather than affirm, our convictions.
An Indiana native, Kathryn is committed to capturing the Midwest with authenticity. She will not employ gimmicks or clichés about flyover country in her work and is not seeing rural America for the first time. Kathryn is a proud Hoosier who believes in the dignity and ingenuity of her neighbors and home state. She is deeply concerned about cultural divisiveness, hopes her work is void of political influence and claims no political affiliation whatsoever.
Kathryn may capture politicized topics, but endeavors with great intentionality to do so without bias. She feels that Midwestern stories should be told by Midwestern photojournalists. Kathryn pursues underrepresented topics. She believes that documentary photographers must be polite observers and that everyone she photographs is owed her full attention and respect.
Kathryn Coers Rossman (website: kathryncoersrossman.com, email: hello@kathryncoersrossman.com, insta: @kathryncoersrossman) is a conceptual photographer and creative director in Bloomington, IN, USA. She studied modernism, literature and urbanism in graduate school at New York University and design and the visual arts via the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) academic program. She was the official event photographer for the 2021 Indiana Hot Air Balloon Festival, a featured artist at the 2021 Indy Rama home design show, and was the first Emerging Artist Grant recipient named by the City of Bloomington Arts Commission. Kathryn's project "National Anthem: Punk Patriotism!" was featured in Polyester magazine in May 2023. "The Majorette" (2022) was included in Cerulean: A Winter Photography Exhibit by Pattern magazine. She is a contributor at Bloom magazine.
Kathryn is happily married and is the proud mother of a four-year-old son. A Hoosier, she left her home state for twenty years, working in Silicon Valley, New York City's East Village and South Florida, before returning to Indiana. Her cousin, photojournalist Michael Coers (deceased), won the Pulitzer Prize documenting school integration for the Louisville Courier Journal in 1975.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Known for images showcasing fantastic beauty and sweeping neglect, the allure Kathryn displays may hide an insidious evil. Emphasizing theatricality and absorption, bordering on fantasy and surrealism, her work is less about identity, politics and individualism than collective escape. She problematically offers nostalgia as a distraction from unpleasant realities and enjoys mixing tangible objects both hard and soft with thematic elements that are cozy and challenging, highbrow and kitsch. The self-described "Lisa Frank" of photo editing, she creates cinematic compositions and utilizes vivid colors that pop!
Her portraits occur within perfectly manicured sets with curated vintage clothing, props and backdrops built around her subjects like oversized dollhouses. She learned photography as an eBay reseller during The Great Recession, selling thrifted jewelry to Courtney Love at Chateau Marmont and frequently landing on Etsy's front page. She was self-employed as a product photographer for a decade before compiling her fine art and editorial portfolio.
APPROACH TO PHOTOJOURNALISM AND VISUAL STORYTELLING:
Kathryn, influenced by 1980s punk subculture, wants to engage the most provocative topics she can find. She believes that individualism is a disempowering, isolating force. Kathryn tries to build bridges by displaying our inherent commonality. She believes photojournalism should be a tool to challenge, rather than affirm, our convictions.
An Indiana native, Kathryn is committed to capturing the Midwest with authenticity. She will not employ gimmicks or clichés about flyover country in her work and is not seeing rural America for the first time. Kathryn is a proud Hoosier who believes in the dignity and ingenuity of her neighbors and home state. She is deeply concerned about cultural divisiveness, hopes her work is void of political influence and claims no political affiliation whatsoever.
Kathryn may capture politicized topics, but endeavors with great intentionality to do so without bias. She feels that Midwestern stories should be told by Midwestern photojournalists. Kathryn pursues underrepresented topics. She believes that documentary photographers must be polite observers and that everyone she photographs is owed her full attention and respect.