Chiiz Volume 06 : Wedding Photography | Page 94

B runo Birkhofer was born in Zürich in 1973. Earlier Bruno experienced a deep connection with nature and its beauty. After some years when he focused on nature photography, he discovered portrait, fashion and nude photography. This engagement with the depiction of the human body changed his life and continues to fascinate him until today. Yet nature is still an important aspect in his nude and portrait photography and it is his great passion to portray people in nature and as natural beings – a working method which requires a great deal of empathy, respect and a special mutual trust. Bruno attaches great importance to conveying these feelings to his images and in order to achieve this an intense and long-lasting co-operation with his models is of special importance to him. In the recent years, Bruno won several international Awards in Black & White and especially in Nude Photography. In 2014, he was selected as Nude Discovery Photographer of the Year at Monochrome Awards. Bruno’s Statement “It has always been a great and special challenge for me to collaborate with persons that move in front of my camera without shyness and shelter. In order to achieve this you need a lot of empathy and understanding behind the camera. I am immensely proud that my models place their trust in me and show a great deal of openness, since it is only in a trusting cooperation between model and photographer, that wonderful and special images can be created. The special focus of my work is not eroticism, but it is my particular aim to create soulful and sensual images. And I try to convey these feelings to my model through little stories and narratives. Nudity to me is a symbol for vulnerability, defencelessness, but also devotion. In every shooting I try to capture the magical moment. This is why I plan all that can be planned in advance, so I can concentrate 100% on the models and their movements during the shoot. There is nothing as fleeting as the „one moment“. It is my aim to turn these special moments into timeless memories that can be felt and experienced time and again in my pictures.” Body Language 85 mm F/8.0 1/160s ISO100