Works
Biography
View works. Krass Clement, Drum 81, 1991
Drum 81, 1991
View works
Krass Clement is an autodidactic Danish photographer, living and working in Copenhagen. Graduating with a film directing degree in 1973 from the Danish Film School, he soon after returned to photography which he had practiced in his youth. Since publishing his first book Skygger af øjeblikke (Shadows of the Moment) in 1978, Clement has become an active documentary photographer, focusing on people from both Denmark and abroad. Starting out in black and white, he has persisted in developing and modernising his artistic expression so that his practice today also includes work in colour. 
 
Clement's childhood was spent between boarding schools and living abroad with his parents. Throughout the 1950s, much of his time was spent in Paris, which had an indelible impression on the young photographer. Fascinated by the city’s disparity of wealth and poverty in the post-war years, over the course of his career Clement has returned to photograph Paris in an attempt at retaining the impressions and reinterpreting the memories the city had on his childhood self.
 
His seminal series Drum (1991), photographed in an Irish pub on a single evening with only three and a half rolls of film, is now considered one of the most important contributions to the contemporary Danish photobook. Revolving around one principal character - a hunched, weather beaten old man who sits alone with his drink, Drum comments on community, the outsider, alienation and the terrors of being alone. From the text that accompanies the images in the book, the reader is informed that the bar was the meeting place for local Protestants in what is otherwise a predominantly Catholic region.

While much of Clement's work was first presented in exhibitions, by the 1990s he had turned to books as his preferred medium. Among his many voluminous publications of black and white photographs are Byen bag Regnen. Fotografier fra København (1987), Af en Bys Breve. Fotografier fra Lissabon (1993), Drum. Et sted i Irland (1996), Langs Vinden. Et fotografisk Essay (1998) and Før Natten. Havana (2001). These pictorial essays contain very little commentary, just a few words or city titles accompany the photographs.
 
Clement's photographic work emerges from two traditions: the Scandinavian melancholy  and the 'flaneur' tradition from the Parisian school. His work originates from a fertile and imaginative thought process, a stream of consciousness that is clearly evident in his later books, more concerned with capturing a state of mind than with situations. His books are less documentary depictions than subjective moods; somewhere between spectator and reality.
Bibliography
View works. Krass Clement, Drum 81, 1991
Drum 81, 1991
View works
krass clement

 

1946   Born March 15, Copenhagen

1973   Graduates from The Danish Film School

 

Selected solo exhibitions

 

2020    The unseen room, Sorø Kunstmuseum

2019     The unseen room, Rosphoto, Sankt Petersburg

2016     Krass Clement - The Photobook, Museumsbygningen

2009    A pas mesuré, Maison du Danemark, Paris

2007    Krass Clement, Galerie Argus, Berlin

2004    Harbourfront Centre, the photo passage

2003    Vejen, Fotografisk Center, København

1996    Drum, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

1989    Ribe Kunstmuseum

            Aabenraa Museeum

1986    Fotograficentrum, Stockholm

            Finnfoto, Helsinki         

1985    Calcutta live, Kunstindustrimuseet

            Fotograficentrum, Göteborg, Schweden

1978    Skygger af øjeblikke, Kunstindustrimuseet

 

Selected group exhibitions

2013     Åbningsudstilling, Museumsbygningen

2009    "Altid som aldrig før", Skagens Museum, Skagen 

2009    Danmark under forvandling, Museet for fotokunst, Odense 

2005    Berlin - Copenhagen Exchange, Fotografisk Center, København und Gallery

2001     Faces and Figures, Contemporary Scandinavian Photography, New York

1999     Den foruroligende stilhed, Vejle Kunstmuseum

1991      New York...., Ribe Kunstmuseum

             Fotograficentrum, Göteborg

1989     Septembre de la photo, 1. Biennale International, Nice

             International Photography, Dublin

1985     Fotokunst 1985,Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense u.a.

1982     Scandinavian Photography "The frozen Image", Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA

 

Shortfilms

 

1970    Persontog afgår

1969    Udenfor

1965    Linie 9

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

2022    Belfast, RRB Photobooks

2021    Metrovia, Buenos Aires, Gyldendal

2019    Across the Cut, RRB Photobooks

2018    Dublin, RRB Photobooks

2016    Impasse Hotel Syria, Gyldendal

2014    Bag Saga Blok, Gyldendal

2012    Venten på i går, Gyldendal

2008   Novemberrejse, Gyldendal

2006   København - et blik over ryggen, Fotografisk Center

2005    Lydhørt, Gyldendal

2003    Berlin Notat, Gyldendal

2002    Forandringen, Gyldendal

2001    Påskesøndag mellem 11 og 16, Gyldendal

2000   Før Natten, Gyldendal

1999    Færgen, Gyldendal

1996    Drum, Gyldendal

1995    Det lånte lys, Gyldendal

1993    Af en By's Breve,Gyldendal

1991     Hvor Ingen Talte, Gyldendal

1990    Ved Døden, Gyldendal

1987    Byen bag Regnen, Gyldendal

1984    Gentagelsens Fest, Borgen

1981    Det Tavse Land, Borgen

 

Scholarships & Awards

 

2018   Ole Haslunds kunstnerlegat

2009   Højesteretsagfører C. L. Davis hæderslegat

2006   Fogtdals Store Fotografipris, Niels Wesse Bagge fonden

1999    Thorvald Bindesbøll Medaille

1997     Statens Kunstfond livsvarige ydelse

1990     Statens Kunstfond treårige Stipendium

1989     Bronzemedaille  für Byen bag Regnen an der Internationalen Buchmesse, Leipzig

1986     Statens Kunstfond (also 1987 and 1988)

1982     Buchpreis des Jahres  für Det tavse Land an der Internationalen Buchmesse, Leipzig

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