Photographer Fee-Gloria Groenemeyer

Fee Gloria is a German photographer and director living in a small town of 400 souls in Moselle, France. She tries to spend most of her time in the countryside, but for work she is usually in Paris or Berlin. We are obsessed with her eye, follow her work here.

Your greatest inspirations or influences?

I take inspiration from everywhere and it changes depending on where I am at the moment. I moved to the countryside with my partner in the beginning of last year, so lately I have been very inspired by nature and how we interact with it as humans. There is so much natural beauty all around us.

Besides my environment I take most my inspiration from collaborating with other artists. Working together to create meaningful work is the best inspiration one can get in my opinion.

Tell us a bit about your creative process?

I am currently working on a small book project (my first book) about the people in the town we live, which I will hopefully be able to finish by the end of 2021.

My creative process isn’t very fixed, it is more organic. There are days when I’m have plenty of ideas and I just start developing all of them at once. Other times I don’t really do anything all day. These off-days are actually really important to me because I can give my mind some time to process all the input we are constantly receiving through the news and social media.

How has this year changed your creativity?

For me, it was actually nice to take a step back and focus more on what I want to say with my work. In the past couple of years before the pandemic I travelled non-stop. But I realised that I actually don’t enjoy that kind of lifestyle as much as I thought I would. I prefer looking at what is in front of me and incorporating that into my work. In a way the last year truly opened my eyes to what is most important to me.

Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?

There are so many amazing people out there that are genuinely making a difference. It is hard to pinpoint a specific person, but really anyone who puts themselves forward and makes a change for the better in this world. For me personally it starts with famous women using their statues to fight for change to all the women behind the scenes working in social organisations or non-profits. To me, especially these women are the icons of our time.

Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so, how can it be improved.

The art world has been run by the same people for a very long time. A small circle (of mainly men), who decide what will be ‘in’ and who will be the next famous artist. I would love to see it become more representative of the actual amazing diversity we have in our world.

We have seen changes happening in many industries, for example/like in fashion with Edward Ennninful becoming the editor-in-chief of all European Vogues and Ibrahim Kamara the EIC of Dazed.

But there is still a lot to be done. I think we need to be more inclusive, bring forward new artists, break up the “old ways”. And most importantly support each other rather than compete against one another.