People: Bianca Werner “One Shot Only”

21 Apr

This Friday, the photo exhibition ‘One Shot to be Honest’ by Bianca Werner will open its doors at the ReTramp Gallery in Neukölln.

What´s so special about this exhibition: All the images were taken with disposable camera.

We had the chance to talk to Bianca about why she chose to work with these non-lasting cameras and about the images shown in the exhibition.
Bianca Werner was born in 1987 in Halle (Saale) where she also first got introduced to analogue photography while getting her professional qualification as a graphic designer. She moved to Berlin in 2008 and started using solely disposable cameras in the beginning of 2012

CHASED: What is so special about disposable cameras?
B.W.: Well there are tons of things that make them special. The thing I love the most is that they’re simple and fast.
My life n Berlin is fast moving and the moments I try to capture are really short, so I need an analogue camera that is easy to handle and allows me to take a snapshot of a moment almost straight when it happens.
Plus: I can throw them on the ground or put them in a puddle of beer, without worrying that they could break.

CHASED: Which cameras did you use (brand etc.)?
B.W.:My cameras are produced by the same drugstore where I get them developed. So it’s no specific brand and very cheap, but I love their quality and the way they are manufactured the most.The best thing to find the perfect disposable camera for you is to experiment with many different ones.

CHASED: In what way are the pictures that are taken with disposable cameras different from the ones taken with “normal” cameras in your eyes?
B.W.: Well I guess you can take good pictures with all cameras of the world but in my case it’s the Snapshot moment. With other cameras I wasn’t really able to take honest pictures that are not staged, whether the camera was digital or analogue.
One second more or less can make a huge difference when it’s about the expression on a person’s face.
The pictures I take now, all have this slight trashy character, the quality of the colors is always different and every facial expression is honest and natural.

CHASED: During which period of time were the pictures of the exhibition taken and where?
B.W.: It just took me a little bit more than half a year to take these pictures and they were all taken in Spring/Summer of 2012.
I guess except of one single picture that I took of one of my best friends in a hotel room in New York City, I took all of the pictures in Berlin.

CHASED: Who are the people you have photographed? Friends? Party acquaintances?
B.W.: There are mostly friends of mine in my pictures. I love it when one can tell that there is a connection between the person on the picture and the photographer.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like to take pictures of strangers too, but most of the time these photos just document different aspects of Berlin culture and not the intimate and genuine atmosphere I want to capture.

CHASED: Your pictures seem to resemble a bit the „naked“ snaphot party and underground documentaries of the likes of Nan Goldin or Wolfgang Tillmans. Who are your favourite photographers and what style of photography do you like?
Uh nice comparison, but I guess it’s a long way for me to go till I’ll be as good as Nan Goldin.
I got several photographers that I really like, I think the two that first got me interested In this style of photography are Helmut Newton and Terry Richardson (and I don’t mean the celebrity stuff that Terry does these days, it’s more his other/older works).
Those are some of my favorite photographers: Dana Lauren Goldstein, Todd Fisher, Gavin Watson, Dash Snow, Ryan McGinley or Maxime Ballesteros.
I like photography that is raw and a little bit trashy. I love honesty and the feeling that the person on the picture discloses a part of itself to the beholder.
Hopefully all this reflects in my works too.

CHASED: Thanks for the interview!

More about Bianca Werner: tumblr