As a visual artist, Anne Geene (NL, 1983) captures the hidden beauty of plants and animals. With the help of photography, Geene investigates, collects and organises the world around her. The camera objectively records the materials in which Geene is looking for visual similarities, patterns and phenomena. Eventually her findings are analysed and cataloged according to an apparent logic. Her interpretation of the data is strictly personal and refers to our urge to regulate and understand the world around us.
The series The Museum of the Plant is a fictional, slightly absurd “museum” that focuses on all aspects of plants that other museums do not discuss. Awork-in progress that Anne Geene has been working on for a couple of years. Coincidence, strange growth, social status, plants that grow in special places, plants with a special owner, etc. Colour Analysis is also a part of the “museum”. If you thought that a plant was only green, you could be mistaken.
In Anne’s work, the relationship between the photographic image and science is a central theme. She explores the issues of scientific objectivity and of photography as a medium used for this purpose. Although photography’s objectivity has been questioned many times, it is exactly this objectivity that gives it this probative power. Here is where she finds her inspiration.
Anne Geene lives and works in The Hague, NL. She studied photography at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and Sint Joost in Breda, and completed a Master’s in Photographic Studies at Leiden University in 2010. Her graduation project 'No 235 / Encyclopaedia of an Allotment' was awarded best photobook of the year by NRC and acquired by the Nederlands Fotomuseum. Geene quickly gained recognition with prizes including the Unseen Talent Award (2014), the Volkskrant Visual Art Award (2018, jury and public prize), and the Goldene Letter at Buchmesse Leipzig for Ornithology (2017, with Arjan de Nooy).
Her work has been exhibited at majorart institutions such as the Kröller-Müller Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Mesdag Collection, Het Noordbrabants Museum, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, SCHUNCK, NEST, as well as at international venues including Photo Basel in Switzerland, Festival Circulations in Paris, France and Photo Museum Antwerp or Ballroom Project in Antwerp, Belgium. Anne Geene's work is part of a vast list public and private collections, among them the Rijksmuseum, Kröller-Müller Museum, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam, Van Gogh House, KPMG, LUMC, the ING Art Collection.