Karen Knorr’s photography explores cultural heritage and its ideological underpinnings. Questions concerning post colonialism and its relationship to aesthetics have permeated her photographic work since the 1980’s. Her acclaimed work India Song researched the stories and myths of India, photographing animals and placing them in temples and palaces across heritage sites in India. Karen Knorr won the V International Photography Pilar Citoler Prize in 2010. She has been nominated for the Deutsche Börse in 2011 and 2012 and Prix Pictet in 2012 and 2018. Karen Knorr’s work is included in collections worldwide including The National Gallery, Washington DC USA Moma (San Francisco), The Museum of Fine Art (Houston), Museum of Art and Photography (Bangalore), Tate Museum (London) and Pompidou Museum (Paris).
Karen Knorr is an advocate for diversity and inclusivity in photography. She is honorary chairwoman for Women in Photography at the Royal Photographic Society and on the steering committee of Fast Forward Women in Photography and a friend of AWARE, the online women’s artist index.
Recent publications include with Gost, Questions After Brecht (2020) which raises questions about architectural space and the reification of labour during the redesign of La Samaritaine (2021) in Paris by the Japanese group Sanaa. A book project with Kehrer entitled Connoisseurs & Academies (1986–2005) and Country Life (1983–1985) were published by Stanley Barker in Spring 2024 and launched at Photo London 2024.
Knorr will be showing some of her 1980’s work Gentlemen (1981–1983) in the upcoming exhibition at Tate Britain in 2024, Photographing 80’s Britain: A Critical Decade, 21 November 2024–5 May 2025. Karen Knorr is preparing for a solo show at Sundaram Tagore Gallery opening in 12 September 2024. Karen Knorr will be participating at Paris Photo 2024 with Filles du Calvaire, showing cibachrome prints (the last batch of Ciba paper) of 17 Connoisseurs work – recently published in 2024 in German publisher Kehrer’s book Connoisseurs & Academies.