While travelling in the land of René Burri, Photo Basel and vistas that defy description, it felt right to discuss art and alpacas with a contemporary Swiss photographer whose work is anything but ordinary. Tina Sturzenegger is a cheese-lover famed for her images of flower-bedecked farm animals and fusions of Pop Art, cityscapes and food - and from the moment I came across her vibrant creations in the pages of Transhelvetica (a publication dedicated to Switzerland) I was obsessed, aware that she’s someone who sees the world a little differently. Self-taught and infectiously passionate, Tina’s projects will make you smile, salivate and pack a suitcase.
An extract from the Switzerland magazine
What do you adore most about photographing food and animals, your subjects of choice?
It’s about composition and feeling. Sometimes I get to work with human beings, which is fun, but when I can shoot food, local farmers or animals there is a fire in me that starts to burn. I don’t have that ardently with humans ... it’s hard to explain in words. It’s just the thing I love to do the most because of the colours, the structure of the food, how it changes when you start to cook it and becomes something different. Farm to table, raw product to dish, that’s what fascinates me.
It’s a joy to work with and interview chefs, many of whom are both brilliant and bonkers. What’s it like to collaborate with the chefs of Switzerland?
My relationship with chefs in Switzerland is pretty good because I’m mad too ... When I work with someone I talk a lot and ask questions and they see my passion, what I’m burning for, what I’m doing, and they’re like ‘hey, we have the same passion’, and you start to connect very quickly. Some of the time we’re going nuts together and have a pretty good time ... Young chefs these days are cutting edge. Go a bit over the top, be honest, then you start to connect and create something great.
Has there been a foodie project that’s been particularly memorable?
I love all my projects but the fun part for me is when I have carte blanche and can do whatever I want. Like with my UMAMI story, or when I shoot drinks. For the UMAMI story they [only] told me that they needed five products pictured so I was doing stuff like freezing fish. My favourite project is my Mangascape story; it’s a mix of food and landscape shot all over East Asia. The things that I love most, China and food, go together pretty well.
Can you tell me a bit about your flower-crowned animals?
It was in 2015 and I was driving around Switzerland and Germany for a job and on the radio they were always playing Lana Del Rey, with the flower crowns, and I started to picture it and was like ‘no, let’s do Lama Del Rey. No, Alpaca Del Rey!’ I’m a huge animal lover so I Googled farms in Switzerland that had alpacas ... I met one who was super lovely and open and was happy to work with me and show me all of their [animals].
What do you enjoy most about working on the road?
Shooting when travelling is excellent. You always get surprises, instantly. You’re walking around and bam, there comes a building and bam, there comes a wall. It’s like a treasure hunt, you’re hunting for your pictures. It just makes me so happy. It’s not about the travel itself, it’s more about finding stuff.
You say there’s a craziness to you style - is this something that has changed over the years?
You develop yourself all the time. You always have your influences, you always get trends popping up and you notice them and combine them with your own [practice]. That’s the cool thing with photography, that you’re developing yourself the whole time, you’re challenging yourself ... You can be happy with what you’ve achieved to this point but you need to have a fire to do more and go bigger and be better.
