Sub Rosa invites us to remember.

No point in life is as replete with emotion, frustration, and expectation as that stage between youth and adulthood.  Adolescence—framed by the loss of innocence, the need to belong, and the longing to be different—seems all but insurmountable in the struggle to discover our true selves.  Sub Rosa reminds us of a time that could not have been more intense, but one that now exists only as a vague memory, a romanticized fragment in our imagination.

Birthe Piontek’s collection of photographs captures an intimacy defined by the vulnerability of youth, and an innocence presented in stark contrast to otherwise somber settings. The images suggest the beginning or the end of a story—a world we were once privy to—all the while hinting at secrets and revealing none.

This combination of the familiar and the strange creates an uneasy tension not only in her portraits, but in Piontek’s still lifes as well.  Sub Rosa suggests a chance to glimpse our own memories, if not to relive what we had assumed lost to us forever.

Birthe Piontek was born in Leer, Germany in 1976.  She earned a B.A. in History and German Language and Literature at the Universität zu Köln in 1997, and received her M.A. in Communication Design and Photography from the Universität Duisburg-Essen in 2004.

Piontek was recently named as one of PDN Magazine’s PDN's 30, the top thirty rising photographers for 2008.  Her work has been exhibited internationally, and has been featured in publications including The Globe and Mail, The New York Times Magazine, Spex, Stern, Western Living, and Die Zeit.

She has received numerous awards, and was named a finalist for the Santa Fe Prize in Photography in 2007.  Piontek lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia.