Ma: What Remains Unseen

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Ellen Kramer, Netherlands
• Website
  http://ellenkramer.nl
• Instagram
  @ellenkramer_fotografie

Ma: What Remains Unseen is a meditation on impermanence and the quiet retreat of humanity as nature reclaims its place. The series unfolds in three stages: three double-layered prints, three single images, then three layered works again. The single prints offer stillness and breath. Inspired by the Japanese concept of Ma, the images evoke fading memory through soft focus, shifting depth, embroidery, and gold leaf. In the final works, layers float freely and respond to air and light. Thread and gold extend beyond the frame, suggesting openness, transition, and the infinite.

Formerly a medical doctor, I now work with layered photography to explore impermanence, memory, and the unseen. I use translucent materials, such as silk organza silk, combined with fine art paper and habitat silk. I use embroidery or gold leaf to create tactile, fragile constructions. Inspired by the Japanese concept of Ma, my work evokes the space between presence and absence, between what is fading and what has not yet arrived. I seek the quiet pause, the breath between moments, where form dissolves and time becomes porous.
I graduated from the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam in 2024.

Awards Although I have not yet received major photography awards, I was honoured to be selected as a Haute Talent by Haute Photographie in Amsterdam in September 2024, following my graduation exhibition at the Fotoacademie. This international photography fair highlights emerging talents and gave me the opportunity to present my work to a wider professional audience.

In the same year, I received an Honorable Mention at the Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA). This was a meaningful recognition of my work’s conceptual and visual qualities.

In 2021 I received an honorable mention at the De stad verbeeldt photofestvial in the Netherlands and in 2023 my words was selected for a long time (> 1 year) open air exhibition at the same festival.

n 2022 and 2024, my work was selected through a competition and an open call. In 2022, I was among the winners of a competition for employees of Amsterdam UMC. In 2024, my work was chosen in an open call by the Fotoacademie in collaboration with the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam.