Jean-Claude Berens

Born in 1970 in Paris, he lived since his earliest days in Luxembourg. He is a nonprofessional photographer documenting the decay of urban and industrial structures across Luxembourg, France and Germany. He is an artistic photographer since the age of 13, when he shot black and white and had his own darkroom.

Jean-Claude considers himself entirely self-taught, easily coming to understand digital photography thanks to his background in analogue photography and his professional role as an IT network and security specialist. He considers Ansel Adams and Buddhist philosopher Shantideva his visual and spiritual mentors, and indeed there is a very Buddhist sensitivity to impermanence in his photographs. He became known for his photographs through his website, UrbanVisions and after several exhibits on the theme, published a book.

There is an undercurrent of haunting, solemn nostalgia in Jean-Claude Berens’ photographs, with his often formal compositions and almost painterly rendition of light perfectly conveying the mood he finds in his subjects. His work is reminiscent of Simon Marsden’s series on supposedly haunted sites in England, and like Marsden, he uses a special technique of photography that has proven an uncanny match for his theme. He has developed a love for decay because he realized there is actually tremendous beauty in decay. And indeed, Jean-Claude has a lot of beauty in decline to show, with a variety of picturesque subjects. Jean-Claude has come to prefer a subtle, realistic style of HDR imaging, just enough to bring out the richness of detail in the scene. His photography has attracted a strong following over the Internet, and a series of them have been used as covers for crime thrillers.