Ellen von Unwerth Devotion! 30 Years of Photographing Women

Ellen von Unwerth is a well-known German photographer. During her 30 years long career, there has been a never-ending cavalcade of stars posing in front of her camera for photo sessions like no other. It’s all about having fun and erasing the boundary between fantasy and reality. Like a film director, von Unwerth creates a parallel universe where everything is possible, while always maintaining her professionalism. Since she took her first pictures during a modelling assignment in Africa some more than 30 years ago, she has produced a host of incredible images, nine photo books, an almost incalculable number of magazine’s covers and also various productions in her career as a film director, as well as created her own magazine that is distributed internationally.

“Much improves greatly if you play around with it. Don’t take things so seriously. Let life come to you instead of trying to control everything. I want energy and movement in my images, because that’s how life is. You can’t control it. It will always surprise you, if you let it, instead of constantly labelling experiences as either good or bad,” Ellen von Unwerth explains her work.

Her works have been exhibited worldwide, and are part of various collections.
Ellen von Unwerth won several prizes, amongst others the first prize at the International Festivalof Fashion Photography in 1991, and the Lucie Award in 2012.