Charlotta María Hauksdóttir’

Charlotta María Hauksdóttir is an Icelandic artist based in California, working primarily in photography. Residing in the USA for over 20 years, she still draws inspiration from her home country Iceland. Created from the perspective of her experience with epilepsy, her work centers around the unique connection one has to places and moments in time, and how memories embody and elevate those connections. 

Hauksdóttir received a BA in Photography from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Italy, in 1997 and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004. She also holds a Diploma in Creative and Critical Thinking from the Iceland Academy of the Arts.

Her work has been exhibited around the world, with solo exhibitions in the USA, Russia, and Iceland including numerous group shows and photography festivals. Her photographs have been published in several magazines and books, as well as a monograph “A Sense of Place – Imprints of Iceland” by Daylight Books that can be found in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, SFMOMA, and Princeton among others. Hauksdóttir’s work is also part of numerous private and public collections such as Stanford Health Care and Reykjavik Museum of Photography.

Charlotta’s work

Charlotta’s work focuses on rural landscapes, specifically nature that provides the theme of awe and terror. Charlotta uses the technique of overlapping layers of fragmented landscapes , printed words and fingerprint patterns. Her work explores a new perspective on her personal memories and the collective impact that we have on the environment. She uses the globally recognised finger print to signify the human presence on earth. she states that ‘It speaks to our impact on nature and nature’s impact on us.’ she also uses snippets of text about global warming and the effects humanity have on nature, this is a subtle but clever way to get show the message behind the photographs. Global warming has become and increasingly important subject over the past 10 years and charlotta shows this throughout her images in many different ways. she photographs different natural landscapes that are almost mesmerising, but cuts them up to show how we destroy the earth constantly. I chose Charlotta as an ispiration for my project due to the fact that I am very interested in the idea behind the images, how they have been torn appart to symbolise human impact, and how the images almost create an illusion and draw you to look into them.

I was particularly drawn to this image of Charlottas. Her use of text and different textures of nature shows the beauty of the world and what we are rapidly destroying. The text used in this image is a piece about global warming. Global warming is a key feature of Anthropocene due to the fact that global warming is caused by humankind. Her use of different coloured and textured stones, rock and gravel give the image a pure feeling of nature and the natural, untouched beauties of earth. The layering also has connotations of big rock formations that you see on big cliffs that have been eroded by water and waves. the exposure used in these images is quite high, leaving the images bright and cheerful, this symbolises the way charlotta views nature. The temperature of this image has a cool hue, giving connotations of sadness. Charlottas images were taken in Iceland, a place that is heavily effected by global warming and climate change. This image is almost like a call for help, she shows the erth and nature but never really anything with snow or the weather that is normally expected in iceland. This is a particularly personal study for charlotta, because she is from Iceland and her home is rapidly being destroyed.