Cortis & Sonderegger

Jojakim Cortis & Adrian Sonderegger

Jojakim Cortis was born 1978 in Aachen (D) and has lived in Zurich since 2001. He gained experiences through internships in the studio of photographer Ben Isselstein (D), Torkil Gudanson (USA) and at the agency Walter Schupfer Management (USA). In 2006 he finished his studies at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK) and obtained a Diploma of Arts in photography. He has been working as a freelance photographer since 2006 , as well as technical assistance and lecturer at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK) since 2009.

Adrian Sonderegger was born 1980 in Bülach (ZH) and has lived in Zurich since 2001. After foundation course in 2001, he studied photography at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK) and obtained a Diploma of Arts in photography in 2006. He worked as an assistance for Artist Jules Spinach from 2007-2011 and he lectured at The School for Art and Design Zurich SKDZ from 2010-2011. He has been mainly working as a freelance photographer since 2006.

The duo began their collaborative work during studies at ZHDK in 2005 and have continued ever since. Together they coneive and manufacture surreal worlds in compositions of "staged" photography.

"Cortis & Sonderegger”s works are characterized by a clear aesthetic diction. Their image tricks are satirically created, ingeniously staged and metaphorically back-filled. Objects and people take off, hover, fall, ... The trademark in their pictures is the fact that the impossible is nimble and playful, their photographic raw materials are simple fabrics, props and tools. The artificial structure with linkage and equipment, with reductions of foreground and background to an image scenery, with light and smoke machines etc. are often made transparent at the edges of the image, reinforcing the message with digital retouching... the two photographers make themselves known as the true inventors for their visual ideas."

Fritz Franz Vogel, PhD Photohistorian, Editor, Curator

Submitted by East Wing