Alice Wielinga

“THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ALICE” Lives and works in Amsterdam, NL Alice Wielinga (1981) was born and raised in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She began her formal studies in photography in 2000, at the Academy of St. Joost, Breda. This school is known for its’ strong documentary tradition. She completed her bachelor’s degree in 2004. Upon graduation, Alice went on to pursue documentary photography; some of her works involved documenting circus life and immigrant workers in Dubai. During her studies at the Academy of St. Joost, Alice became one of the first few to embrace the power and opportunities of modern digital photography. Instead of seeing this revolution as a loss of traditional craftsmanship, she experienced these new technologies as an enormous widening of possibilities for visual expression. Alice continued her education in 2009, spending six months in New York City, attending master classes in digital manipulation, advertising and fashion photography at The International Center of Photography. Currently, Alice is moving with her work into an area between photography and painting. “It seems to me as if I make paintings, not while using traditional oil paints, but with the use of 21st century techniques in photography and digital imaging”. The work cannot be placed in traditional categories. It encompasses documentary, art and commercial photography, and at the same time, does not fit in any of these categories. Her photography is a reflection of her fantasy, and not a testimony of reality. Alice constructs her works piece by piece; each element may be photographed at different times and locations, sometimes even in different parts of the world. She also combines self-drawn or painted elements with her photographic material. The whole becomes visible as she pieces the puzzle together. The early Netherlandish painters and the Russian realistic painters have inspired Alice. She is also fascinated by paintings made during the Qing Dynasty in Imperial China, and by Persian miniatures. In these works she recognizes a purity of visual language and composition, which she believes is of the utmost relevance in communicating current messages. With the creation of a series Alice tells a personal story: a magical fairy tale, a political statement or it may reflect certain historical references. The images may be girlish, comic, fairytale or collage-like, are at one time utopian, and at other times filled with violence and slaughter. Alice’s images are rich with color, detail and narrative. It is through the narrative that her work remains linked to the documentary tradition, while drawing on contemporary image techniques to express the plural human and social reality, from a personal point of view.

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