Olivia Karelina - Photographer

Olivia Karelina is a photographer from Moldova who came to Antwerp to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts — and ended up falling in love with the city enough to stay. At Trix, she brought her documentary and portrait background to a music venue for the first time, using it to give equal weight to the audience, the backstage moments, the faces in between. Working mainly in stark black and white with harsh, direct light, she’s drawn to tenderness next to rawness, and to the small signs of identity people carry with them. Doom, psychedelic, progressive rock — the music she loves carries the same intensity she brings to the people she photographs.