Tina Sturzenegger

My work explores the grotesque beauty of modern contradiction: the friction between our pursuit of "purity" and our surrender to "guilty pleasures." We cleanse crystals while chain-smoking; we chase eternal health while consuming high-calorie thrills. I capture this tension—the longing for control in a world of seductive excess.

I treat food not as sustenance, but as a cultural marker of identity, status, and hope. By using animals—rabbits, cats, or mice—as symbolic proxies, I project human aspirations onto non-human bodies, questioning how we construct our ideals of happiness and the "perfect" self.

My compositions borrow the saturated, glossy visual language of 1970s and 80s advertising. I deliberately exaggerate these "perfect" worlds to expose their manipulative nature. The retro aesthetic serves as a mirror, reflecting how contemporary self-staging is often a repeat of past illusions.

My practice is defined by total autonomy. For the past five years, I have acted as art director, stylist, photographer, and high-end retoucher for every piece. This absolute control over the creative process is a conceptual echo of the very perfectionism I critique: a staged reality, meticulously crafted to investigate the promises we choose t...

MIA Photo Fair - Milano IT 2026
Part of Portfolio Parade
Emerging Contemporary Photography

FMoPA - Florida Museum of Photographic Arts 2025
2nd Place Winner Conceptual

photo Schweiz 2025
Wild Card Winner

reFocus Awards World Photo Annual 2024
Bronze Winner
Conceptual Professional

FFL Fotofestival Lenzburg 2024
Select image, good luck, for the theme of "synthesis"

MIA Photo Fair - Milano IT 2024
Irinox - save the food
Series: There must be light burning brighter somewhere + Room Service

Tokyo International Foto Awards 2023
Silver Winner
Categories: Portfolio - Food
Series: Room Service

reFocus Awards World Photo Annual 2023
Winner
Categories: Still Life
Series: room service

ACUMEN ART MAGAZINE N°37 2023
by Galerie Joseph Paris
L'apothéose de la photographie culinair
story about my photography

IPFO - International Photo Festival Olten 2023
Exhibition Photoville4600
4 images from my food still life series "room Service"

Tokyo International Foto Awards 2022
Silver Winner
Categories: Portfolio - Food
Series: There must be light burning brighter somewhere

PX3 - Prix de la Photographie Paris 2022
Silver Winner Advertising - Food
Series: There must be light burning brighter somewhere

ipa - international photography awar...