Christina Felschen is a photographer and journalist in Vancouver, B.C. (Originally from Germany, she previously lived and worked in California (2014-17), New York City (2017-2019), and was stranded on Corona Island in 2020.
Her features tell global stories about human rights, migration, and minorities from a local perspective. In her portraits, she is interested in showing what makes someone special by bringing out their story and character in an instance. She mostly works with natural light and tries to become part of the action with her camera.
Photography and journalism have allowed her to meet people she would never have met otherwise: CEOs, artists, and startups in Berlin for cover stories in the major newspaper Die Welt, climate refugees in India, and genocide widows in Rwanda for the German NGO Welthungerhilfe as well as activists around the world for the Japanese NGO Peace Boat.
Christina has worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, Marseille, Buenos Aires, Kolkata, along the US Mexican border, and on the world’s oceans. She holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature, French, and Social Anthropology and received her professional training in cross-media journalism at the EJS School of Journalism in Berlin. She started photographing with an (analog) SLR in 1998 and has since taken many trainings in photography and documentary filmmaking, most recently at the International Center for Photography (ICP), the New York Film Academy (NYFA), Stanford Continuing Studies, and the De Anza Community College, Cupertino. She is a contributor with Getty Images.
For her photo exhibition Suddenly silence she portrayed 33 refugees from Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan in their new home in rural Germany. She believes that photography can be an agent for social change and understanding – in settings of conflict, but also in suburban California.
She is fluent in English, German, Spanish, and French.
Clients (photography):
- different magazines and newspapers: ZEIT ONLINE, Die WELT, SWR/ARD, German public radio, Deutsche Welle, Life in the Bay (Californian blog)
- NGOs, organizations, and thinktanks: Peace Boat (Japanese NGO), Welthungerhilfe (German NGO), Magazine of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Yale News, Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- artists, professionals, and families
- photography classes at the International Center of Stanford University, the Palo Alto Adult School, and the EJS School of Journalism in Berlin
Her journalistic work can be found here (English) and here (German).
Exhibitions
2021: Did that just happen via Don’t smile (group)
2021: Das Jahr ohne uns, Germany (curation of student exhibition)
2019: Fremde Nachbarn, Berlin, Germany (curation of student exhibition)
2017: 24 Stunden Berlin, Berlin, Germany (curation of student exhibition)
2016: The campus that never sleeps, Stanford, USA (curation of student exhibition)
2016: Half the sky, Stanford, USA (curation of student exhibition)
2015: Und plötzlich diese Stille, Westphalia, Germany (solo)
2007: Toruner Ansichten, Göttingen, Germany (group)
Testimonials
– Photography classes
“Christina was a fantastic teacher! The syllabus was amazing and covered everything from “how to handle your camera” to very specific technical and professional topics. She managed the different levels of her students very well and infected everyone with her love and passion for photography.”
“Christina is an excellent teacher. She is very professional and passionate about what she teaches, in this case, photography. She is very patient and she explains everything you ask her in a very clear way.”
– Photography assignments and exhibitions
“Dear Miss Felschen, thank you for your successful efforts to bring people closer together. We need more like this, it’s worth it! Impressive!” Rita Süßmuth, April 2, 2016
(Guestbook entry of the former President of the German Bundestag and Minister of Education who saw my solo exhibition on refugees in German villages in a town hall)
“I love the portraits Christina made; they exactly represent my personality and profession and help me to promote my business. Her professional attitude and open-minded character helped a lot.”