Ulrike Köb

Ulrike Koeb lives and works in Vienna, Austria, as a food and still life photographer. After working as an assistant to renowned photographers, she took several master classes in photography in Maine and New Mexico, USA. These classes had a significant impact on her and gave her the push to dedicate herself to artistic photography. Among other things, she has done extensive research with black and white techniques, such as platinum-palladium prints, which she sometimes colors. Her sensitivity and passion for color and form are an integral part of her work. In addition to commercial book and magazine projects, her photographs have appeared in many other publications.

Her work has been shown in collective and solo exhibitions in, among others, Oman, England, South Korea, the Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, and more recently as part of the Image Festival in Amman, Jordan.

The project r e d u c e / r e u s e / r e c y c l e, to which the works displayed in Drap-Art belong, consists of seductive, sometimes irritating images made from food, found objects, and packaging materials, primarily plastic. She also uses decaying edible products. With these works, she aims to raise awareness about the “throwaway society” and the resulting massive environmental threat. Nature does not produce waste; it works in a circular cycle, which the regenerative model of the circular economy has adopted in order to reduce waste and emissions. Materials, electronic devices, and clothing that are already produced must be used, repaired, and passed on for as long as possible or shared. Our consumption behavior needs to change progressively, as soon as possible. Everyone needs to do their part for this to happen. We only have one planet, but we are acting as if we have several backups.