A Journey from Snapshots to Inventive Imaginative and prescient
Cornelia B. Bienz’s path to pictures was not one among deliberate ambition however of quiet discovery. Her relationship with the digital camera started in her faculty days when she first experimented with analogue pictures. She discovered pleasure in capturing photographs and creating them within the darkroom, but her profession initially took a special course. As a flight attendant, her digital camera grew to become a companion for documenting her travels—primarily by means of informal snapshots and vacation footage. Pictures remained a private ardour relatively than a occupation.
Every thing modified in 2015 when an sudden alternative reshaped her perspective. She got here throughout a course titled ZEN Photograph Artwork – Shaping the Void by Jo Fahl, and one thing about its description resonated deeply. Appearing on intuition, she enrolled, unaware that this determination would ignite a profound creative journey. The expertise shifted her understanding of pictures, reworking it from a easy technique of documentation into an expressive medium. Wanting to refine her craft, she sought structured coaching and enrolled in a part-time pictures and picture processing program on the European Photograph Academy in Raststatt below Matthias Gessler. The academy’s mix of on-line seminars, in-person workshops, and project-based studying offered her with the technical basis and inventive area to discover pictures extra deeply.
Over time, her creative focus grew to become more and more outlined. She gravitated in the direction of kinds that embraced stillness and contemplation, significantly macro and ZEN pictures. Macro pictures allowed her to uncover hidden magnificence in on a regular basis objects, capturing them from uncommon views in each shade and black and white. In the meantime, ZEN pictures grew to become greater than a method—it advanced right into a philosophy. For Bienz, it was an act of give up, a meditative engagement with the current second, the place the impulse to press the shutter arose naturally. The ensuing photographs, typically characterised by huge vacancy, invited viewers to step away from the chaos of each day life and immerse themselves in quiet reflection.
Cornelia B. Bienz: Portray with the Digicam
In her creative evolution, one other pivotal second arrived when she encountered Intentional Digicam Motion (ICM) pictures. With out prior information of the method, she felt an innate want to “{photograph} the way in which Claude Monet painted.” The works of the Impressionists, significantly Monet, together with the atmospheric work of J.M.W. Turner, had lengthy captivated her. Their mastery of sunshine, motion, and shade impressed her to hunt a approach of translating comparable sensations into photographic kind.
As if by destiny, she stumbled upon ICM pictures, a method that allowed her to attain exactly what she had envisioned—creating photographs that transcended illustration and evoked feelings by means of blurred types and fluid movement. The method grew to become a method of expression past phrases. She refers to her method as “coronary heart pictures,” an intuitive observe that captures the essence of a second relatively than its literal particulars. On this fashion, concrete material turns into secondary to the environment, temper, and emotional resonance.
By means of ICM pictures, Bienz found the flexibility to depict the world in a approach that feels dreamlike and typically even magical. She is especially drawn to historic cities, the place a way of timelessness lingers within the streets and structure. Initially, she believed that areas corresponding to Venice, Rome, and Paris have been excellent topics, as their wealthy histories and romantic decay complemented the fluidity of ICM. Nonetheless, she quickly realized that city landscapes and human figures might additionally function compelling canvases for this method. Whether or not capturing the flickering lights of a cityscape or the ethereal motion of a passerby, her work transforms peculiar scenes into poetic visible narratives.
The Artwork of Seeing Past the Seen
For Bienz, pictures isn’t confined to a standard workspace—it’s a observe she carries along with her in every single place. Her digital camera is ever-present, very like a trusted companion, able to seize fleeting moments of inspiration. Whereas she edits her photographs utilizing a laptop computer and minimal post-processing in Photoshop, she locations nice emphasis on composing her photographs in-camera, striving to attain the ultimate imaginative and prescient in the mean time of seize. Her artistic course of is immersive; as soon as she begins taking pictures, the skin world fades away, and he or she enters a state of centered presence the place time and distractions dissolve.
Her creative influences, rooted in Romanticism and Impressionism, are evident in her work. The luminous turbulence of Turner’s seascapes and the delicate, shifting gentle of Monet’s work are qualities she seeks to evoke by means of her pictures. As a substitute of portray with a brush, she paints with motion, gentle, and publicity. She doesn’t merely doc a scene—she interprets it, infusing it with emotion and a way of fleeting magnificence. This method permits her to maneuver past standard pictures and into an area the place photographs really feel extra like recollections or goals than static representations.
Amongst her most cherished works is a bit titled Grand Canal, Venice. Venice holds a deep private significance for her, drawing her again a number of occasions a yr. The town’s twin nature—its breathtaking grandeur contrasted with its gradual decay—fascinates her endlessly. In her ICM photographs of Venice, the architectural particulars dissolve right into a haze of shade and lightweight, harking back to outdated grasp work. Her work doesn’t merely seize the bodily points of town; it encapsulates its soul. It invitations the viewer to step right into a timeless imaginative and prescient of Venice, the place previous and current mix seamlessly, very like town itself.
Cornelia B. Bienz: The Way forward for Coronary heart Pictures
Bienz’s creative journey has been guided extra by instinct than by deliberate planning. She by no means got down to develop into an artist—it was one thing that unfolded organically. The turning level got here in August 2022 when a fellow photographer inspired her to share her work publicly. Taking a leap of religion, she had enterprise playing cards printed in early 2023, adopted by the launch of her web site in March of that yr. What started as a private ardour had quietly advanced right into a profession.
Whereas ICM pictures at the moment defines her creative fashion, her work continues to evolve. She approaches pictures with an openness to alter, permitting every second to form her artistic course. Her course of is deeply rooted in commentary and feeling—earlier than urgent the shutter, she typically spends prolonged durations merely absorbing her environment, attuning herself to the environment and the interaction of sunshine, form, and shade. It’s a type of creative mindfulness, a observe that requires endurance and presence.
Trying forward, Bienz envisions bringing her photographs into new areas and contexts. One among her aspirations is to collaborate with the journey business, particularly by adorning cruise ship cabins with images of the locations on their itineraries. Such an endeavor aligns completely along with her work’s essence—creating photographs that transport the viewer, not simply visually, however emotionally. By means of her lens, she continues to supply audiences an invite to pause, dream, and see the world by means of a softer, extra poetic gaze.
