Daydreaming has never been a challenge. In my childhood imagination I lived as an equal with wolves in a secret woodland. I imagined myself prospering in this wilderness where I roamed endlessly through beautiful terrains. I fabricated this alternate universe to escape awkward shyness. As a result of this fictional world my early drawings were filled with uncommon creatures and mountainous landscapes. In this fantasy, and the drawings of it, I found belonging.
As a youth I looked inward to my imagination for comfort. As an adult I have chosen the camera as a tool for its ability to look outward. With it, I still search for alternative worlds. Just as I created an imaginary realm as a child, I am now drawn to those that also create new territories, and are at least in moments, living within them successfully. They are queers, activists, punks, trannys, artists, and everything in-between. With them, I am in a sense, living with wolves and existing in an alternate world.
Karen Kirchhoff lives and works in Philadelphia. She teaches both traditional and digital photography at Tyler School of Art, Delaware County Community College, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and Project Basho in Philadelphia.