Bahlsen studied at the Berlin University of the Arts and was part of the postgraduate class of Prof. Ute Mahler and Robert Lyons at the Ostkreuz School of Photography, Berlin.
Her works are shown internationally, including at the Kunstverein Hannover, the Kommunale Galerie Berlin, Photo Saint-Germain, Paris, and IACK Kanazawa, Japan. She has received numerous awards and grants, among them a grant from the German Künstlerbund and the Aenne Biermann Prize for Contemporary German Photography.
Her books are represented at international art book fairs and are included in renowned collections such as the Library of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo. She is teaching photography at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany, as well as in the MFA Photography program at the University of Hartford, USA.
Clara Bahlsen lives and works in Berlin. In her artistic practice, she investigates how relationships and states of relation can be translated into visual forms. Her photographs, installations, and books transform interpersonal dynamics into dense, multi-layered image-worlds.
Central points of departure are found objects and memory objects from her personal archive. Some objects are carefully researched, others spontaneously integrated. Through their staging in still lifes—the interplay of different pictorial levels, captured photographically in analogue form—images emerge that condense reality and transform it into an independent visual language.
![[EXTENDED] FREE SPACE (FOR UKR) - Alana Lake, Albert Coers, Aldo van den Broek, Alexander Minor, Alexander Wagner, Aline Schwörer, Aneta Kajzer, Anna Nezhnaya, Archiv Sander | Schaal, Ben Greber, Birgit Maaß, Birgit Schlieps, Bram Braam, Bretz/Holliger, Carlos Enfedaque, Christine Gedeon, Clara Bahlsen, Felix Baxmann, Frank Pietras, Gert-Jan Akerboom, Ignacio Lobera, Ivonne Thein, Jase Kala, Jens Hausmann, Klaus Killisch, Knut Eckstein, Kristina Popov, Lukas Troberg, Marianna Ignataki, Mario Hergueta, Marta Vovk, Martim Brion, Maurice Doherty, Maxim Brandt, Menno Aden, Michel Vincenot, Miron Schmückle, Nicole Wendel, Nils Blau, Pedro Boese, Peter Freitag, Philippine de Salaberry, Pierre Granoux, Rutger de Vries, Sabine Herrmann, Sebastian Heiner, Semra Sevin, Sibylle Jazra, Sir Güdel, Susanne Schirdewahn, Thomas Prochnow, Ties Ten Bosch, Yvon Chabrowski, Zuzanna Skiba](https://file.web.artbutler.com/wph21/uploads/sites/8/2023/06/17015637/c1f5b5d2f2d945c7-768x768.jpeg "[EXTENDED] FREE SPACE (FOR UKR) - Alana Lake, Albert Coers, Aldo van den Broek, Alexander Minor, Alexander Wagner, Aline Schwörer, Aneta Kajzer, Anna Nezhnaya, Archiv Sander | Schaal, Ben Greber, Birgit Maaß, Birgit Schlieps, Bram Braam, Bretz/Holliger, Carlos Enfedaque, Christine Gedeon, Clara Bahlsen, Felix Baxmann, Frank Pietras, Gert-Jan Akerboom, Ignacio Lobera, Ivonne Thein, Jase Kala, Jens Hausmann, Klaus Killisch, Knut Eckstein, Kristina Popov, Lukas Troberg, Marianna Ignataki, Mario Hergueta, Marta Vovk, Martim Brion, Maurice Doherty, Maxim Brandt, Menno Aden, Michel Vincenot, Miron Schmückle, Nicole Wendel, Nils Blau, Pedro Boese, Peter Freitag, Philippine de Salaberry, Pierre Granoux, Rutger de Vries, Sabine Herrmann, Sebastian Heiner, Semra Sevin, Sibylle Jazra, Sir Güdel, Susanne Schirdewahn, Thomas Prochnow, Ties Ten Bosch, Yvon Chabrowski, Zuzanna Skiba")
