Katja Rahlwes was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1967. She moved to London when she was 16, and later on to Paris to study fashion design at Studio Berçot. In 1995 Katja began her career as a freelance fashion stylist and a part-time photographer working in the independent press that emerged in the ’90s, contributing to the revolutionary visual aesthetic that evolved in that decade.
Some of her most significant collaborations of that era were with Purple magazine, but she also worked for i-D, SelfService, Dutch, Butt, Made in USA, and many others alternative publications.
In the last ten years Katja has dedicated herself entirely to photography. Her ambition and professionalism has led her to working with international magazines like Vogue Paris, Vogue
Nippon, and American Vogue and fashion houses such as Gucci, Celine, Miu Miu, and Chloé.
But she’s continued to work in the independent press, and has produced a personal canon of artistic still-lifes and self-portraits.
Throughout her career Katja has displayed a distinctly personal style and aesthetic. Her images express a strong feminine identity, mixing glamour and radical independence — with a spark ofthe punk attitude, she first experienced as a teenager.
The upcoming exhibition Paris am Main at Galerie fuer moderne Fotografie with an opening during ABC art week Berlin 2015 samples a range of Katja’s work, including her still-life and portraits ofNadja Auermann, Malgosia Bela and Claudia Schiffer.
Some of her most significant collaborations of that era were with Purple magazine, but she also worked for i-D, SelfService, Dutch, Butt, Made in USA, and many others alternative publications.
In the last ten years Katja has dedicated herself entirely to photography. Her ambition and professionalism has led her to working with international magazines like Vogue Paris, Vogue
Nippon, and American Vogue and fashion houses such as Gucci, Celine, Miu Miu, and Chloé.
But she’s continued to work in the independent press, and has produced a personal canon of artistic still-lifes and self-portraits.
Throughout her career Katja has displayed a distinctly personal style and aesthetic. Her images express a strong feminine identity, mixing glamour and radical independence — with a spark ofthe punk attitude, she first experienced as a teenager.
The upcoming exhibition Paris am Main at Galerie fuer moderne Fotografie with an opening during ABC art week Berlin 2015 samples a range of Katja’s work, including her still-life and portraits ofNadja Auermann, Malgosia Bela and Claudia Schiffer.