Karen Safer

I am a photographic artist, writer and poet with a musical bent who lives at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I’ve walked all over the globe in over 230 countries/territories and seen so many places, things, art, ‘scapes and people; heard so much music, seen plays, operas and movies, danced and sung in tavernas and bottegas. My eyes have witnessed so much of this rich natural and man-made tapestry and landscape. I have captured all corners of the globe and yet missed shots as I just stood and marveled but forever were etched in my memory. I was heavily influenced early on by old movies, all music, books, poems, philosophy, etc.

I was given a camera and crayons at 3 and exposed, enchanted and inspired by California motifs: light, trees, the ocean, music and vernacular architecture that defined and influence my left-handed aesthetic. I was influenced by my dad’s photographic hobby and my mother’s thirst for knowledge and travel. I have degrees in art and a career in art, design and architecture. Nature in all its glory captivates me; I take inspiration from the ancient world to the modern - from the Assyrians to Vermeer to Matisse to Atget to Cindy Sherman. I am a student of history and have traveled extensively and exhibited in over 300 solo/group shows in galleries, museums, featured in books and magazines from London, Rome, Glasgow, Budapest, Athens, Prague, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Sao Paulo and from California to New York, winning 250+ Talent, Merit and Honorable Mention Awards and represented in private collections.

I was fortunate to begin a life of travel as a teen that shaped my love of the exotic paired with an eye for the formal, accidental and unusual while subliminally seeking the “beautiful” that jiggles the lens/frame of my eye. Most recently, I was honored with First Prizes in photography in ABSTRACT, ARCHITECTURE, CHILDREN and STILL LIFE categories in prestigious 21st Julia Margaret Cameron Award and the 18th International B&W Spider Awards, International Botticelli Prize 2024, LA ART SHOW 2024 and upcoming Tokyo Met Museum, ArtExpo Basel and New York. I am a self-described romantic soul with intellectual cravings. "A photographer has the whole world big or small to capture." - kjs


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