ARTIST STATEMENT

I create surreal dreams and celebrate beauty - beauty without any attempt to glamour.
The camera is my tool to make stagings pictorially.
I portrait people - the form of their bodies and their different kind of beauty, inspired by figurative painting, movement expression and performing arts, especially dance. A reference to fashion photography can be observed but is not my mission. I am interested in the interpretation of terms such as nudity, sentiments and desire - always committed to the aesthetics.
In my work underwater I use the natural element of water to take advantage of the neutralization of gravity. Visibility of the presence of water is of secondary importance.

BIOGRAPHY

Gabriele Viertel  is an award winning  Netherlands-based german Photographer .
She has garnered recognition for her otherwise otherworldly concepts, transcending the boundaries between two worlds, the one of contemporary art, photography tradition and the classical painting of old masters. The magical, surreal athmosphere and a chiaroscuro lighting are characteristic means of expression. Gabriele does not consider herself a photographer by definition, but an image-maker of stagings to communicate aesthetics and the perception of beauty.

Before Gabriele dedicated to photography, she has graduated in technical design in Cologne. During this period she worked as a model to fund the study. After graduating , she moved on to  pursue the career as an model, working for more than a decade with designers such as Dior and Karl Lagerfeld.

Viertel's fine art imagery achieved exceptional attention followed by myriad publications worldwide. Her work has been featured by Vogue Arts, Cosmopolitan and the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco.

During a short period of 3 years she has received more than 30 awards,  including the Gold Medal of theInternational Color Award and the Silver Medal Fine Art Nude of Prix De La Photographie Paris. Whilst her work is held in public collections and prestigious private art collections, the work of art have been exhibited in musea and galleries in europe and USA.