WERNER BRANZ
After all tears I cried and lot of fears are felt, the fucking war in Europe feels to me almost like an everydays routine and waiting for the worst. The dreams and plans are crashed the ability to decide about my life has all this time been just an illusion? All the necessary things in life have vanished by themselves. I understood what is truly important in my life: the life by itself, my family, my friends and friendly neighbours, being healthy, helping others, sharing with people and CREATING ART.
And even more than ever before, I have an enormous need to photograph beautiful world around me. I want to share with my series ofrealistic, surrealistic and abstract scenes.They are for me a bright spot in the middle of this times. Everything I can imagine is real. Illusion is the first of all my pleasures. I always want to see something I've never seen before. I pick up the magic of the moment and work with it. Then I realize that photography sees more than my brain makes me believe. I express my thoughts with pictures, It is important to me to keep my work open, thus, to have many references at the same time. My pictures should not only illustrate anything, much more to stand for themselves, also I likedoing old things in new ways! - Werner Branz
Behind what at first glance appears to be astonishingly varied artistic manifestations, there stands an enigmatic thinker, a seeker connecting different photographic perspectives, a differentiated thinking photographer.
His activities can hardly be confined to the realm of traditional photographic artistry. A thinker about time and space, a designer, he always positions himself as a questioning creator rather than a romantic and conventional individualist, crafting his own world.
His images - photographic narratives - transcend the well-known. The passion of W.B., his intuition, personal preferences for flowers and landscapes, for people and simple things, are evident and especially palpable in all his works.
The obsession that has now spanned over four decades has become his visual language, understood by the entire world. The imaginative aspect of his photography, combining the most diverse - sometimes self-created - techniques, merges into careful image constructions.
To represent the invisible and communicate beyond language is his intention. Without restraint, he indulges in the liberating 'act' of photographing and reacts to it. A creative process in which he is completely guided by his intuition.
His personal aesthetic feeling and joy in the process, the exploration of colors and forms, the material, and ultimately the craft itself, are an essential driving factor. This enthusiasm is felt and experienced in his pictures and ultimately visible.
These are matters of the heart, personal experiences and feelings through which W.B.'s protagonists' soul is inherent. Without this emotional depth, there would be no beauty, and none of his pictures.
His narrative and dialogical foundation in his artistic creation is a precursor to contemporary global photography - a walk through the world of photography he has created.
As Werner said: "I have the feeling, I have something to say, to narrate, and I want people to hear it by seeing it!"
**Himi Burmeister about Werner Branz
Photography is the passion of the Austrian photographer because his inner strength compels him to give his visions, dreams, doubts, and fears a creative form. Whether people, nudes, nature, flowers, stills or abstracts, his camera is the means of expressing his perspective, his view of life, of people and things.
Werner's works are characterized by the necessity of a physical experience. His images do not necessarily have to be purely aesthetic to be felt. They invite the viewer to engage with the action itself or to reflect on the process of creation in order to comprehend the intensity.
For over 15 years, he lived periodically in the United Arab Emirates, specifically in Dubai. During this time, he also compiled the substantial "EMIRATE TREASURES" collection. The EMIRATES became a second home for Werner Branz, just as the Spanish island IBIZA became a kind of second home.Numerous exhibitions in galleries, art fairs across the world, testify to his creative power. His images are found in museums and private collections.
"My photography gives me the ability to speak in a language that will be understood around the world. For this, I am very grateful!" - Werner Branz
