Emotions, expressions, faces. these are the dominant themes of Kathrina Wegmann’s portraits of life as she flirts with her camera to produce the perfect picture. A resident of Dehradun for over two years until she relocated to Delhi, Wegmann took to professional photography in 2002. Ever since she has been transforming simple everyday expressions of joy and warmth into memorable photographs.
Life has been the perfect muse, and its varied moods provide sufficient inspiration for this native of Hameln, North Germany, who has captured people, customs and varying human emotions while traversing through Norway, Argentina and California before finally settling in India in 2006. To top it all, she showcases her evocative photographs in innovative frames which freeze myriad emotions.
Wegmann started working immediately after she completed her European Baccalaureate exam in Germany in 1988, travelling to California, where she worked as an au pair looking after children while residing in Freemont with an American family and learning their customs and traditions. A year later she returned home to Germany where she worked as a travel agent for over nine years until 1998. “It was while working in the travel agency that I developed an irresistible urge to globetrot,” she recalls. The urge to see the world prompted Wegmann to travel for a whole year, during which she wrote her first German-language novel titled A Glass of Water, a tragic love story.
Back in Germany in 2002, Wegmann began studying homeopathy, the art of natural healing she had long wished to learn. Simultaneously she was making customised frames for her collection of photographs, an art she learned with professional intensity. “While travelling the world, I was struck by the universality of human expressions and sentiments that transcend language, cultural and class differentiation. I experienced the need to demonstrate the brotherhood of humankind through my photographs,” explains Wegmann.
In 2006, prompted by a desire to study homeopathy further, Wegmann came to Dehradun and apprenticed with a local homeopathic doctor. Meanwhile, as a photographer she has captured some impressive interplay of colours so vividly reflected in all Indian objects — from bangles, turbans, saris and weddings to typical street scenes.
While here, she has already penned The Water Lily, a compendium of homeopathic remedies. “I want to introduce all elements of Indian culture to the people of Germany. I believe we share a common cultural strain which goes back deep into history,” says Wegmann.
Natasha Pathak (Dehradun)
