Katie Stelmanis

From album covers to specials in iconic music magazines like Rolling Stone: the music world is entwined with the photographic medium in countless ways. The challenge for a photographer is usually how to capture the core of a musician’s personality. In the many portraits of bands and musicians made by the Dutch photographer Isolde Woudstra, what stands out is the huge diversity in terms of scenes. This suggests that she always goes in search of the most appropriate context for the portrait of a particular musician. In this photograph Woudstra portrays Katie Stelmanis, a Canadian singer of Latvian origin, known from the bands Galaxy and Austra. Stelmanis is standing on a bed and appears to just have shaken her head, as her face is covered by her blond hair. ‘Musician in bed’ is apparently a popular theme: see here an example by Jussi Puikkonen and here an example by Miranda Lehman. Isolde Woudstra’s work was on display as part of Music &Foam, an exhibition created in collaboration with the Amsterdam music magazine Subbacultcha. Music &Foam was the second exhibition in a series in which Foam explored the overlap between photography and other artistic media.