Werner Branz (* 29th of april 1955 in Lustenau) is an austrian fine-art photographer. After his „Master Degree“ he worked in the USA, Europe, Far- and MiddleEast, photographed campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent and others. He had exhibitions in New York, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Vienna und Arles. One of his artworks is owned by the Sammlung Ludwig as a loan to the Russian Museum.
Branz was honoured in 1989 with the European Colorart Gold Master. He got the Kodak Gold Award three times, won the 1998 Hasselblad Open, and three times the Spider Award. In 2008 Branz was nominated photographer of the Year and the Masterscup in Los Angeles. Today he lives in Dornbirn-Austria und Ibiza-Spain.
Life and career
Early life
Branz learned at his fathers company, a photographer well known for his landscape photography. After his Master Degree in 1978, he worked for Hugo Hofer, the most important portrait photographer in austria. Then his way lead him to Los Angeles where he worked for Monte Zucker.
Photography
After his return he funded his own photo studio. But soon he found his destiny in the fine-art photography and he began to travel the world. He worked international in the USA, Europe, Far- and Near-East and Australia.
Branz as an artist
His work is extraordinary versatile, from nude photography, Landscape photography, Still life to Architectural photography. He creates the picures in his mind and they are allready finished before the shutter clicks. His current work is still influenced by his deep knowledge of the old school photography. Light, print techniques and his knowledge give a spectacular depth to his works.
In the 1990s he visitet Arles frequently, where he showed his work in the Café Van Gogh direct beside Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon.
Werner Branz produces and provokes. His works are ambassadors all over the world: Cologne, Dubai, Abu Dabi, Arles, Vienna, Singapur, Ibiza, Paris, Las Vegas, Norway, Dubai, New York, Miami, Sydney, San Francisco, but also in his homeland in Rankweil, Bregenz, Feldkirch, Lindau und Vaduz.
His art is shown (amongst others) in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, in the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and the Museum Angerlehner, Austria.
Fashion and Design
His works was published in several magazines like Vogue Paris, Rolling Stone and Photographie. He photographed campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Miss Sixty, DKNY and others to name.
He portraited Lenny Kravitz, Sting, Elton John, Rod Steward, Pino Sagliocco, Sheikh Faisal bin Khalid Al Quasimi.
Technique
Branz uses a lot of different processes to bring is photos to life, like bromoil process, mainly for nude photography, which develops an obskure characteristic. In his early years he worked with larg scale (8″x10″) Polaroid and applied them positive and negative. These early techniques still have a big influence on his work.