RESOURCES
Perhaps some photographers are made, and others are born. While Berlin-based Anna Cor was a lawyer for years, life had a way of calling her back to photography.
“I have always had a great interest in interior design and architecture, and, as a teenager, I photographed a lot and developed my photos in a little dark part of the attic,” she said. “I became a lawyer, which was also quite okay for me for several years. But when I had little breaks having my three kids, I always filled these free times with my interests from the teenage days.”
Cor would rearrange rooms in her Berlin home, and then photograph the calm, spare interior spaces for which she has become known. “Friends asked me to help them with interior design in their homes, and I took quite a few product shots for friends who started new businesses,” she said. “That is how it all started.”
Through word-of-mouth, Cor’s reputation continued to grow, and eventually she had so many requests that it was time to for her to go into business. “I decided to follow my heart and be a photographer,” she said. “It was very strange in the beginning…”
Today, Cor is a professional photographer and stylist, and an Adobe Stock Premium Contributor.
Finding the joy and calm in daily life.
Cor’s interiors reflect the values of calm and simple living that are at the heart of her own life. They touch all aspects of her working process, as well as her time with her children. Her photographs capture domestic scenes of exquisite baking projects in preternaturally clean kitchens, stunning tabletop tableaux, home crafts derived from natural materials, and the occasional candid shot of her kids at play.
“I am a calm person behind the lens and in general, I guess,” Cor said. “I really love to capture images that look like a moment you freeze and hold in mind forever as it touches your heart. The look of calm seems to express this the best way.”
Cor achieves this mood by composing scenes slowly, careful not to overload the frames. And while Cor’s imagery reflects her values, the scenes she captures are rarely a part of her actual lifestyle.
“The images I take are staged, except for the ones with the kids,” she said. “I don´t want to bother them. I sometimes combine a project for myself — for example, baking — and take a moment to create a setting I would love to photograph, but there is always extra care for the setting when I capture it with the camera. If a cake has to be baked quickly, the process cannot be photographed.”
Cor is meticulous in finding the right setup, styling, and frame, which is why she almost never stages moments with her children.
“I don´t want to keep them from what they´re enjoying in a particular moment,” she said. “Also, I want to enjoy my time with them, and photographing is something I really need to focus on. It takes away my thoughts from everything else. That is wonderful when I work, but not so good when I do something with the kids.”
In general, what Cor shows in her images is what she tries to find in everyday life, too. “I love a neat home,” she said. “It has to be a calm space in a very busy city. And I also love to do simple and calm things in my free time. I always try to show [my children] the joy in daily life, in simple things. I read somewhere that the exciting things take care of themselves. That is something I do find very true!”
Straight shooter.
Cor’s rules of engagement with interior shoots are as crisp as her results. Whenever possible, Cor frames her interiors by shooting straight into a room. The focus needs to be tack sharp. Sometimes she stages items, and sometimes she works with what’s present.
“When I have to work with what's on site, I mostly have to put things away, to be honest,” she confesses.
Her home, visible in candid shots with her children but also as the background of her staged shoots, is intentionally a bit neutral — both to facilitate clean backgrounds for her photographs, but also because she never quite seems to get to the frame shop. Cor claims to have a love of color, but it doesn’t come across in her home styling or photographs.
“No art at the walls, that is true,” she said. “I always want to get some drawings and photographs made by our family on the wall but fail to get them framed. I also use my home quite a lot as a studio and need plain walls.”
Cor’s aesthetic seems more of a match with a rural setting than with her city life in Berlin. For some years, the family had a little house in the country, and it was the site of many of Cor’s photoshoots. By way of explanation, Cor quotes a song by The Strokes (Heart in a Cage): I am stuck in a city, but I belong in a field.
“I always come back to tones you would find in nature,” she said. “I miss nature every single day living here in Berlin, and I spend a lot of time driving to the surrounding area to take my dog for very long walks.”
Credits: Adobe Stock/Anna Cor
“Living in Berlin for more than 20 years, I often feel very detached to the rest of Germany,” she said. “'Berlin is an Island… that was said when Germany was still parted. But I feel like it still. It is the modern and tolerant Germany I wish for — not in all districts, but mostly — that is sometimes so different from other regions.”
Cor does not equate her imagery so much with her German roots, either in terms of the liberal metropolis of Berlin or her upbringing outside the city — but her photos do reflect something of her family values and the way she was raised.
“The images probably show more of my upcoming and education, I guess,” she say with a smile. “I always had to be well-behaved and my images are, too. No wish for irritation or provocation in my work!”
In this, she is imminently successful. Cor’s imagery does not rankle, and if it is borne of a yearning for a more rural setting than daily life in Berlin, that need expresses itself as an oasis of cool and peace, catered with tempting cakes and wreathed with evergreen garlands, rather than a heart beating at the bars of its cage.
Try Anna Cor’s Lightroom preset.
Anna created a Lightroom preset as a gift for Discover readers. After you install it, apply it to your interior, portrait, and outdoor photographs to achieve some different warmer tones.
Use the slider to compare a “before” and “after” version of one of Anna’s Adobe Stock portfolio images, using this preset. Credit: Adobe Stock/Anna Cor
Explore more of Anna Cor’s work on Adobe Stock.
Discover more Adobe Stock Artist Spotlights.
Marquee image: Adobe Stock/Anna Cor
