Work in progress

SO – EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES

FEATURING BERNHARD KEMPEN AKA BARBARA

With half a line from Hamlet’s soliloquy “to be or not to be”, I immerse myself in a world between fantasy and reality, between authenticity and staging. As if in a daydream, I set off with my partner Bernhard – and his trans identity Barbara – on a journey through constantly changing scenarios in urban spaces, natural worlds, and theatrical settings. Fleeting moments of everyday life alternate with theatrical stagings of transsexuality. Like in everyday life with my partner, there is no clearly defined separation between their identities.

As a chronicle of the last few years, my particular focus is on the search for inner images. To this end, I do not realize precisely planned visual worlds in my stagings but remain open to the unexpected and provoking chance at best.

PERCHANCE TO DREAM

(2017 – 2024)

„In the pictures of Eva Brunner, the garden of Eden presents itself as a labyrinthine place, a hallucination between naturalness and artificiality, separated from the earthly but yet grounded again in the human body. Can we escape from this eternal happiness? Or are we captivated in the permanent search for happiness? Dazzled by beauty of frequently mystical apparition, we find ourselves immersed in a world which no longer follows any logic of space and time.

In a permanent alternation of perspectives and moods of light, photographs of paradisiacal landscapes or enigmatic body presentations are merging with traces of civilisation to form a surreal stream of imagery.“

Wolfgang Zurborn

NO ESCAPE FROM PARADISE

(2016 – 2020)

EVA BRUNNER
Featuring BERNHARD KEMPEN a.k.a. BARBARA

One evening, over a decade ago, I met Barbara in a nightclub in Berlin. Enchanted by her presence I started documenting her life with my camera. What is special about her is that she is not the unapproachable glittering transvestite, but rather like the girl next door you can have fun with and muse about sex and gender and everything else. In the process, I got to know science fiction author and comedian Bernhard Kempen. Barbara became my favourite model – and a couple of projects later, Bernhard my spouse. „Being Barbara“ („Ich bin dann mal Barbara“) is the title of a trans-erotic cabaret program by and with Bernhard Kempen a.k.a. Barbara.

Unfortunately, the comedy performances haven’t taken place since the pandemic. However, Barbara still likes to party. Some of the photographs were taken in the backstage area of a Berlin club. Other shots document the transformation of Bernhard into Barbara.

BEING BARBARA

(2013 – present)

In 2022, I had the privilege of taking photographs at Schauensee Castle in Kriens near Lucerne. I lived there for a few years in the 1960s, after my mother had married an illustrious and charismatic banker as her second husband. Unfortunately, my stepfather was not as successful with his business ventures as he would have us believe with his lavish lifestyle. A few years later, when he was threatened with bankruptcy and the banking commission launched an investigation, he committed suicide.

The medieval castle – popularly known as ‘Schlössli’ – has repeatedly appeared in my dreams and nightmares over the last few decades. For me, this photo session was like travelling back to my childhood and immersing myself in a parallel world full of familiarity and strangeness at the same time.

‘S SCHLÖSSLI

(2022 – present)

When I rushed to Asunción after my father’s death to dissolve his household, I used a small camera to document his assets and, to a certain extent, my moods. I tried to get closer to him and his life, which spanned almost a century, the last third of which he had spent in Paraguay as Swiss emigrant. The relationship with my father had not been easy, especially as the banker had never accepted my choice of profession. It was only when we both got older that a certain serenity set in and we got along better. I visited him in Paraguay every few years and we spoke regularly on the phone.

In his honor, I put together a small publication with these photos and portraits of him that I had taken a few years earlier.

MY FATHER SO FAR

(2007 – 2019 – present)

„Eva Brunner’s photographs present us urban landscapes that radiate an intense humanity, beyond any aestheticism or mere reproduction. She practices a haunting ‚poetry of deterioration‘ that describes an intensive urban existence. This poetic technique, paradoxically avails itself of a cold and objective language, dissecting what bestows a rare and compelling intensity upon her declaration.“

Jaume Fabrega – AICA

SIDE VIEWS

(2009-2017)