Komorebi Dreams

In Donata Wenders’ art, everything seems to be in motion – even in frames that have been lifted from one of her film sequences, and translated into static photographs. Fleeting moments are preserved both in the form of moving images, and on handmade Japanese Tesuki Washi paper. Like an accomplished poet, Wenders opens up associative spaces without ever veering into the sentimental. She observes the world with an instinctive gaze – playing with space and time, light and shadow, and every shade of grey found between black and white.

Born in Berlin in 1965, Donata Wenders studied film and theatre in Berlin and Stuttgart before starting her artistic career as a camera assistant and cinematographer for feature films and documentaries – which was also how she met her now-husband, Wim Wenders. Since 1995, she has been working as a freelance photographer, including as a set photographer on the famous film director’s movie projects. Far beyond these collaborations, the artist’s independent oeuvre has been extensively exhibited in international galleries and museums. Whether she trains her lens on people or elements of nature, Wenders relates to the world around her through the eyes of a lover: curious, intuitive, and with great sensitivity. Over the past 25 years she has, almost nonchalantly, produced a body of work that transcends the genres of both film and narrative photography. Her singular images are powerful yet fragile – like luminous still frames from the movie we call ‘Life’.

Komorebi Dreams will be on view at Johanna Breede Photokunst from 16 March to 24 May 2024.