Hammershøi Salon Style Portraits, Number 1

"Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) was born in Copenhagen and lived there his entire life. His oeuvre consists of portraits, nudes, landscapes, architecture and interiors, but it is his interiors that continue to draw the strongest response.

"When I first stood before his paintings, I was transfixed. I was besotted. I was smitten. Why? I instantly identified with Hammershøi. I saw my work when I looked at his work. His paintings and my photographs spoke the same visual language. Viewing his interiors is an intimate experience. One enters his private home, moves around his physical space, and then slowly encounters one’s own soul. Hammershøi projected his inner world onto his canvases and there I met him. It was a somewhat narcissistic experience. I had the sense that we both suffered from the same “interiority” complex.

"In total, in various museums, I have photographed 100 works by Vilhelm Hammershøi that are held in over 20 public and private collections in North America and Europe. These 100 photographs make up one of the streams of my series AT HOME: Hammershøi. While in Copenhagen, I also photographed locations where he lived, studied and worked, as well as architectural landmarks that he had painted in his hometown.

"Architectural works by Hammershøi resonate deeply with me. I have been photographing iconic structures in European capitals for over a decade. My work is interpretive, not documentary. I strive to create images that resemble architectural drawings: the building centred in the composition, the light even, the lines parallel, the palette soft and the view of the principal façade unobstructed. Thus, I feel a deep kinship with Hammershøi’s architectural works."

- L. Hossack