You may not be familiar with the name Corina Andrian but chances are that you’ve seen her work before. Corina is a London-based photographer, film director and contemporary dancer and her images imprint themselves on your mind. The photographs are charged with presence, not just of the models or places she captures, but also of their observer. Her selective colors, a signature technique I might add, draw audiences into the importance of storytelling, while exploring themes of home, nature and identity.

When Cultartes asked about describing her style, she told us: “A self-defined Surrealism. My art is inspired by reality in its rawest state or as Magritte would put it <<casting doubt on reality through the use of reality itself>>. I like to look at the things people would usually overlook, the simplest of things, and rearrange them in a way which makes you question reality, makes you wonder and create. My surreal is not part of the realm of fantasy, but I wish to make it part of a realm from which my viewers could confidently come back to reality prepared to face it, instead of escaping it temporarily then returning to a not so happy life.”

On her transition from being a photographer to being a photographer

Most likely I started filming before I started exploring with photography. Because of my professional dance background (first classical ballet and then a range of contemporary dance styles), I was foremost interested in how things moved and why. Seeing a picture would make me wonder what happened before or after it was shot. Only until a few years ago did I start becoming more interested in capturing still images from a need to exercise or bring to life some of my ideas which I end up turning into film. I didn’t really feel there was a specific time I became a director. I’ve always felt like I had things to say through visual arts and you need to take initiative and bring people together to make those visions happen.

Film for me is the most complete art form through the way I can explore it synaesthetically by combining elements of all the senses. My images form from impressions of how something feels rather than how a moment is created through dramatic beats. Having explored acting and painting as well, it is quite natural for me to bring together all these art forms into a film but also take those beyond by finding new associations every time. Tangibility and physicality are aspects I’m particularly drawn to in film and which I explore and research as I like the way in which image can affect an audience physically, triggering the body in unexpected ways.

On what keeps her inspired

The need to find the most authentic way to portray my ambitions of an art which would remind people how and why they are human. I wish to direct my first feature film in the very near future which would have people exit the cinema with more questions and curiosity, not indifferently and empty. The need to explore constantly and make people come closer to art, to the joy of being playful and creative without being afraid to make mistakes. I’m inspired by the way people move, are moved and are able to move others.

On her favorite project

A project I’m particularly proud of writing and directing is an unreleased short film: Always return to the sea. It is still in post-production and I am collaborating with some incredibly talented people but I’ll be able to reveal more information once I can release the trailer. This short has a more personal significance to me and follows a conversation between two people who might or might not have met each other before. What you may or you may not find in this film: green jello like in Viata cu Louie, forest spirits called oamenii-ceai, hands, peppermint, confetti on a bellybutton, a bear and the Sun’s mass. I’m proud of this film because with every film I make, there’s always that echo of a doubt in the back of my mind of whether I’ll be able to spit out that vision into an image and whether that image can contain and carry that unique meaning. Will I be able to translate this particular feeling felt at that particular time in a palpable moment in a film? I can’t say I have failed so far.

All copyrights: Corina Andrian / Red-Cor

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Still can't tell exactly my origins because of my suspiciously ‘Chinese eyes’.