ARTIST ART CARD

Corinna Stoeffl • Mystical Images of Nature & Photographic Mandalas

Corinna Stoeffl

Website: stoefflphotography.com

505-685-0978

email: Corinna Stoeffl

PO Box 1314

Abiquiú, NM 87510



ARTIST STATEMENT – For me, photography is an expression of my deep connection with Nature. I continuously challenge myself to truly see, because it is so easy to look, label and move on. As an artist, this has led me to create intimate and abstract photographs. They permit me to focus on the beauty of the moment, the most essential aspects, to compose images that have a sense of mystery about them and ask for exploration, sometimes more on a feeling level than an intellectual one.

My Photographic Mandalas, a unique form of photographic art, take this a step further. At first sight, the images seem to have nothing to do with nature. Yet a closer look leads to recognition of sky, clouds, rocks, ridgelines, or plants. The beauty and magic of these images pulls you in, touches you and transforms you. To me, they represent the Spirit of the tree or landscape, the energy of the sky, clouds and ridgelines. Sometimes it becomes obvious in the hidden image I can see within the Mandala.

Creating these images is affecting my way of seeing. Often I imagine how something might look as a photographic mandala. I derive great pleasure composing them and experience the pure joy of creating. The wonder question “how would this look if I rotate the camera around a center point?” got me started and now keeps me exploring new subjects. From the flowers, I moved to the sky and clouds, included ridgelines, on to trees and to experiment with landscapes. There are so many more possibilities, which I plan on exploring step-by-step, season-by-season.

Despite all the knowledge I have acquired, I am only partially in control of how the final image looks. The ten exposures that are overlapped in-camera and the rotation of the camera create an inexplicable aspect. I can only predict parts of the image and that is something I thoroughly enjoy. The challenge in creating these mandalas is to not force it, to go about it intellectually, but to allow something mysterious to happen. The feeling is akin to the one I experienced years ago when drawing. For me it is what Dr. Wayne Dyer calls being inspired, In Spirit. The beauty of a resulting image often takes my breath away and humbles me. There is a sense that it is not me, who is taking these images, rather I am the one, who brings the technical aspects to it so Spirit can move through me.