Untitled (Karen Glaser and Husband)

About the Photographer

Glaser, Karen

American, b. 1954

Karen Glaser has been shooting underwater for over two decades, from saltwater oceans to freshwater springs to local swimming pools. Fish, manatees, swells of swamp grass, or the occasional diver take their turn in front of the lens. Sometimes the composition features a solitary creature surrounded by water, while at other times the view is much denser, filling the frame fully with schools of fish or elements of the submerged landscape. Although Glaser has worked in color for her many of recent series, her earlier black and white photographs, such as Dome Amid the Water (2000), harness the grainy quality resulting from using a 35mm camera with available light in the water to heighten the atmosphere or even a sense of strangeness. Glaser received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri (1976) and her MFA in photography from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana (1980). She taught at Columbia College Chicago from 1980 until 2012.