MANIPULATED REALITY

JOCHEN CERNY

// Jochen is from Düsseldorf, Germany and now lives and works in Munich. Artistic talent runs in his family, with a grandmother who was a passionate photographer and a father who worked as a marketing consultant with industry photographers. Today Jochen produces highly colourful, sometimes abstract, photo art.

Although Jochen originally wanted to be a professional photographer, he ended up as far from photography as one could get – in an international investment banking career. Some years ago his passion for photography was reignited when he shared his photos with his childhood friend and famous photographer Andreas Gursky, who encouraged him to continue. Since then Jochen has developed his own unique style. He was influenced by the Düsseldorf School of Photography, but has developed his own idiosynratic style with a focus on colour and the object.

Jochen has won multiple awards in photo challenges such as the Trierenberg Circuit, the Monochrome Awards, Fotoforum Magazine and Viewbug. He has exhibited his artworks in various galleries in Germany, New York, London, Paris, Zurich, and Hong Kong and received much praise both by art collectors and photography lovers. He is a member of the association Kunst International Stuttgart E.V., and in March 2020 he was nominated as a curator by the Asian Art Association in Singapore.

“ColoUr creates atmosphere.”

Jochen Cerny

What draws you to the arts?

“Art means for me to allow people, both individually and in group settings, to express emotions or to create a visual object through an expression of skill or imagination by using diverse media, like photography. This is contrary to the world I lived in before, which is dominated by analytics and numbers.”

What do you like best about digital photo art such as the images you have shared with us?

“The reaction of the spectators – leaving them in a comfort zone created by the colours of the picture but leaving them on their own when exploring what they are watching. “

Jochen´s photographic style stands out from the commonly known classic photography as he uses his own perfected “CMPB technique” (Color Manipulation with Pixelsort and Blur) that transforms different, individual digital “post-production” processes into a unique form of photographic art. In doing so, the object is changed by conscious colour manipulation in such a way that it is suggested to the viewers to move primarily in a colour space that has a direct influence on their perception. However, the essence of the object is not alienated; viewers should always recognize the photographed object in its basic features.

Jochen´s more recent works are increasingly resembling abstract paintings. He achieves this effect by combining long exposure and moving the camera and/or changing the focal length. “This digital photo painting is somewhat unique among modern photographers as abstract shapes and objects remain in the foreground. Existing objects with their own artistic aesthetics become new works of art themselves,” says Jochen.

His pictures are not meant to tell a story in the traditional sense, but rather they are intended to bring more vibrance to the subject. They show an altered reality, one that is sometimes reminiscent of pop art and sometimes of abstract expressionism, particularly colour field painting.

Click on the photos to see a larger image with its title. Some images may be cropped for layout.