Annie Bertram is Gothic Beauty’s most published photographer. Famous for the dark fairytale emotionality of her images, she contributed importantly to the soft darkly elegant style Gothic Beauty Magazine is known for and has shot seven Gothic Beauty Magazine covers and counting. Annie Bertram contributed to Gothic Beauty Magazine 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 35, 38, 41, 43, 44, 45, 49, 52, 54, 54, 56, 57, 58, and 59, plus a few more and more on the way. Annie Bertram is a joy to work with and people who work with her tend to work with her multiple times. In addition to her photographs of goth celebrities like Solar Fake, H.R. Giger, and Blutengel, Gothic Beauty has published Annie Bertram’s collaborations with models Drastique, Seraphine Strange, Rose Black, Sabine Kalbermatter, La Esmeralda, Acid Doll, Ulrike Goldmann (Blutengel), Volodina, Laila Bastet, Theresa Fractale, Denise DelConte, Anja Milow, Johanna Constantine, Valentin Winter, Resa, Esther Von Nachtschatten, Sabrina Tippman, Leocadia LaCroix, Angelique, and numerous festival-goers and the occasional concert shot. Some of the designers she has collaborated with for the magazine include Vecona, Royal Black, Romantic Threads, Wulgaria, Vide Noir, House of Inferno, Bibian Blue, Giulia Denise, AMF Korsets, Follow the White, TolllKirsche, Angelique, V-Couture, Arthemis Maskenbilde, Plastikhaar, Malgorzata, Kseniya Arhangelova, and Dr. Brassy Steamington.
Annie Bertram directs music videos for gothic and similar subculture bands. She has worked with Blutengel, She Hates Emotions (Chris Pohl solo project), Solar Fake, Staubkind, Lost Area, Scheitan, Tunes of Dawn, Valentine Berlin, In Strict Confidence, RROYCE, Delivered Soul, and more. The visual language she brings to directing elevates the videos she works on to be viewed over and over again by fans.
Annie Bertram’s ethereally beautiful images have shows in numerous gallery exhibits. She has shown frequently at the H.R. Giger Museum in Switzerland, the namesake gallery of H.R. Giger, the Oscar-winning creator of the Alien movie creature design. H.R Giger said Annie Bertram was his favorite photographer. She has done multiple exhibitions at Villa Boveri, a high culture heritage site of architectural significance in Switzerland. She has shown at multiple venues in Germany and the UK as well, including at the Agra Café & City Museums in Leipzig during Wave-Gotik-Treffen, the world’s largest gothic festival, and at the Strychnin Galleries, a powerhouse major transatlantic hub for pop-surrealism and lowbrow art at the time.
Her photography is deeply rooted in a desire to merge inner psychological states, dreamy narrative fantasy imagery, and gothic alternative subjects, using photography as a bridge between human emotional reality and mythic psychic reality. Annie Bertram’s personal work includes photographing the landscapes of decay, ranging from old buildings to beached seafaring vessels. Her numerous books include her newest Gesternwelten – Memoiren des Verfalls (Worlds of Yesterday – Memoirs of Decay), and Zwischen den Welten – Verlassene Orte in Europa (Between Worlds – Abandoned Places in Europe), Wahre Märchen 2: Elf klassische Märchen in neuem Gewand (True Fairy Tales 2: Eleven classic fairy tales in a new guise), Obsolete Angels – Zeitlose Engel Geschichten aus einer vergessenen Welt (Obsolete Angels – Timeless Angels Stories from a forgotten world), Obsolete Angels Previewbook (Obsolete Angels Preview Book), Wahre Märchen (True fairy tales), and Die Farben der Träume (The colors of dreams).
As Annie Bertram is our most published photographer and Drastique is our most published model, it seems only fitting to include one of her photos created with Annie Bertram in the retrospective calendar currently funding on Kickstarter. If you pledge the Gothic Beauty Kickstarter project, you can help curate which images we publish. I am very excited about getting to interview such icons of our community. Excerpts of this interview series will be included in the Gothic Beauty 25 Year Reunion of Original Artists – Calendar Project, but I wanted to share the full-length interviews as well.
BTS: How did these particular shoots with Drastique for Gothic Beauty Magazine 19 and 26 come together and what was the shoot day like? Anything you’d like to share about the location, how the collaboration went, what it was like working with your collaborators, anything extra you had to do to make the shoot happen? What was the post-processing like and has your process changed/evolved since then?
Gothic Beauty Magazine 19
I still have fond memories of my first Gothic Beauty photo shoot with Drastique.
We had already organized several photo shoots together, and I was very happy and grateful to be able to work with her. Drastique was one of the scene’s top models at the time, and I found it very exciting that she worked regularly with Gothic Beauty. A magazine from the USA! Until then, I had had no contact with international magazines. She asked me if I would like to do a photo shoot with her and invited me to her home in Essen. We were both very fascinated by the Gothic Lolita scene and its influences, so we wanted to make that the theme.
The backdrop was the extensive park of a famous factory owner’s villa. We were very happy that a photo from this series graced Gothic Beauty, and I am still very proud of that today.
Gothic Beauty Magazine 26
Since then, Drastique and I have worked together regularly.
Now it was time for her to visit me in Switzerland (where I was living at the time). We wanted to stage something really special. We got permission to take photos in an abandoned Art Nouveau hotel. The wonderful designs were provided by VECONA, who had made a name for herself in the scene as a designer.
Obviously your work from this time period is iconic, but, from your perspective, where were you at in your career at the time?
I started taking more and more photos in the goth scene in the early 2000s, as I was and still am part of it myself. I quickly received very good feedback and great appreciation. So many opportunities arose that I am very happy about, and I still can hardly believe everything that has happened to me.
What are some of your credits (publications, clients, subjects)?
HR Giger Museum Gruyeres, portraits HR Giger, portraits of Jonathan Davis (KORN), portraits of Maxim (The Prodigy)
Working with Strychnin Gallery and international artists
Gothic Bands: Blutengel (band photographer since 20 years), Diary of Dreams, Solar Fake, Unheilig, Frozen Plasma, Golden Apes, Wisborg and many more
International Exhibitions
Publication of books
Given that your work helped define the 2000’s gothic aesthetic, what are your thoughts on the ways the culture and its art/fashion/style have evolved?
I can hardly believe that more than twenty years have passed since I started portraying unique and beautiful people as a gothic photographer in the scene. For me, it’s still magical, and I can’t imagine ever stopping because it fascinates me again and again.
The creativity in the scene is also still unbroken. I feel like a timeless traveler and am very grateful that I can always discover new people for myself.
www.anniebertram.com
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