Karl Emerick
Hanuska.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Portraiture.
A way of looking.

I am an artist and photographer. I make portraits about identity, desire and belonging, drawing on theatrical invention and close attention to the person in front of me.

I work with light, costume, make-up, material and gesture. A photograph often begins with an idea I want to explore; the encounter gives it an unexpected direction. I compose the image around that exchange, shaping a story within a single frame.

Gay and queer experience is central to my life and my work. I return to masculinity, tenderness, the body and the freedom to appear on one’s own terms. My self-portraits turn those questions inward: My Unseen Me confronts what I hide from myself; Scream explores anger, hopelessness and persistence.

I also photograph the relationships around a person. The Radical Act of Just Being and Q Kitchen connect portraits with wider experiences of migration and belonging. I am an immigrant myself, aware that my route here was easier than many of the journeys represented in this work.

My background in journalism and communication informs my interest in people and the stories around them. The studio gives that interest a theatrical form; outside it, I look for the gestures, rituals and encounters through which people become part of a community.

I am based in Amsterdam and welcome conversations about portrait collaborations, exhibitions and publications.