“Many of my works are the result of an aestheticisation of the scenery or the photographed objects. For me, however, aestheticisation does not necessarily mean beauty. Reduction or focusing on a detail can lead to a very ambivalent statement. Working out simplicity is often a highly complex process, if not the most difficult thing.”
Stefanie Minzenmay is a photo artist. She lives and works in Neuss and Oldenburg, Germany.
From 2012 to 2014 she completed several annual classes at the School of Artistic Photography in Düsseldorf and from 2015 to 2016 seminars at the Lichtblick School in Cologne. This was followed by a series of awards and the awarding of the residency prize as part of the Portraits Hellerau Photography Award in 2016.
Minzenmay's artistic work is characterized by reduction, formal compositions and a serial thematic work. In the internationally acclaimed portrait series Protected Privacy, Minzenmay plays with the boundaries of genres by combining still life and portraiture to create a particular coherence.
Many of her works are the result of an aestheticization of the scenery or the photographed objects. In this context, however, reduction does not necessarily mean beauty.
Stefanie Minzenmay's photographic works are represented in private and public collections. They have already been exhibited internationally, for example in group exhibitions at the Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, at the Kolga Tbilisi Photofestival in Tbilisi, at the Whitebox Gallery Publika in Kuala Lumpur or at the Galerija Kortil in Rijeka. In addition, the works were shown in numerous solo exhibitions, such as the Hellerau European Center for the Arts Dresden, Galerija Principij in Rijeka or Foto Forum in Bolzano.
“There are strong influences of ‘new color photography’ present in the work in Neuss based photographer, Stefanie Minzenmay. Her work is characterized by simplicity, yet strong formal compositions, which combine the understated colours and account for their unassuming, yet often monumental character. Of particular note is Minzenmay's use of natural light and minimal or absent use of retouching, which gives her photographic work a soundness of character and straightforwardness. Her subject matter, on the other hand, is set between the mundane interiors, reminiscent of her 1970s counterparts, and the more telling and complex approach to portraiture, which is a prominent aspect of her work.
Minzenmay's dealings with portraiture are of a peculiar kind. She plays with the boundaries of genres, seemingly hybridizing portrait and still life into a strangely coherent yet disquieting presence. Vegetables assume poses of classical busts, while stools covered with fluffy blankets appear as some furry animals, ready to relinquish their inanimate state and surprise us by coming into being. Her human subjects are treated with similar discrete reticence, camouflaging the eloquence of their individual traits, making them seem more like exemplars of types than images of real people. There is a particular relationship to information we expect from photography that Minzenmay puts under scrutiny, its prima facie informative nature and directness numbed and replaced by an ambiguously muted neutral glow.”
—Vladimir Vidmar, Ljubljana, 2020
#sinkorswimcontest by TheCuratorship, prize winner
Winner of visitfotoforum
Second Place Winner (LACMA und LACDA) LACDA 2018, Los Angeles
Finalist of KLPA Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards, Portrait Photography Prize, Malaysia
Shortlisted, Kolga Tbilisi Photo Contest, Tiflis
Winner TSVFISHMAG_GRAVITYFREE Award
Life Framer 2016 Editor`s Pick, category Humans of the World
Finalist of 9th Pollux Awards, category Portrait
Winner of Residence Prize of the Portraits Hellerau Photography Award
Prize winner of Kuala Lumpur International Portrait Photo Award
Shortlisted PhotoWerkBerlin-Prize Eye Contact
Stefanie Minzenmay is a photographer based in Neuss & Oldenburg, Germany.
Current publication: TSV_ZINE 004 / Hunting Shadows — now available
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