Hildy Pincus Kronen
Hildy Pincus Kronen received a Brownie camera from her father at the age of 10. Seduced by this tool, a new world opened up to her, one where she discovered she could use imagery, rather than words, to express herself. In her younger years, Kronen engaged in the rebellion against inequality that is still every woman's battle. Dressing her brother in women's clothes and then photographing him, she discovered early on that she was fascinated with gender identity.
She continued along these lines, dressing and undressing her subjects, including her own figure. Bodies are the main focus, often hiding or cropping out faces. Her photos are mostly silver gelatin prints printed by the artist in the darkroom, some black and white, some hand-colored. They contain structured compositions compliment the figures they contain, creating a ground in which unsettling, emotionally jarring or even violent ideas can be expressed. The emotional tensions in her dramatically lit images are paired with dark comedic, Hitchcock-like scenes. Her newest work is an example of a simple and powerful combination of all her concerns, she photographed her son's gender transition process from a female for the past year and a half.
Kronen currently lives in Canaan and is represented by Sohn Fine Art, Lenox, MA. She received an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Hunter College, NYC. Her earlier education began at the School of Visual Arts NYC where she majored in Photography. She then continued her studies at The International Center for Photography NYC where she was introduced to major photographers such as Shawn Kernan, David Chalk and Charles Gatewood who helped form her vision - with Duane Michals being her greatest and most steadfast influence. This quote by Michals greatly informed her work, "Photography deals with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be. Trust that little voice in your head that says 'wouldn't it be interesting if...' and then do it. I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see." Kronen has been published in Photographers Forum Magazine, Today's Photographer Magazine, Time & Life Photography Annual and Woman Self Portraits (edited by Joyce Tennyson Cohen).
