by Sara Firman of Vision Spa Retreat
[all images reproduced by kind permission of Linda Troeller]
If Picasso is right, then Art and Spa surely go together. Both might add something more soulful (moist, fluid, luscious, vibrant) when we're feel worn down by life.
One of the things I love about spa as healing space is the inherent potential for creativity. It's a special quality of soul, that beauty is always bound up with feeling through experiencing.
Over the last two decades, photo-artist Linda Troeller's mission has been to convey through her work what it actually feels like to enter a spa and immerse yourself in the experience.
I first came across her work at Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza. It was a booklet about their Liquid Sound®, featuring Linda's art, that made it possible for me to convey that magical experience to my friends later.
Vision Spa Retreat is focused on all that is soulful and sustainable in spa, so I was delighted to learn more from Linda about how she came to be involved with spa art and what has inspired her in that.
I began by asking Linda how her interest in applying her photographic art in the world of spa came about.
[all images reproduced by kind permission of Linda Troeller]
Art washes away from the Soul the dust of Everyday Life
- Pablo Picasso
- Pablo Picasso
If Picasso is right, then Art and Spa surely go together. Both might add something more soulful (moist, fluid, luscious, vibrant) when we're feel worn down by life.
One of the things I love about spa as healing space is the inherent potential for creativity. It's a special quality of soul, that beauty is always bound up with feeling through experiencing.
Over the last two decades, photo-artist Linda Troeller's mission has been to convey through her work what it actually feels like to enter a spa and immerse yourself in the experience.
I first came across her work at Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza. It was a booklet about their Liquid Sound®, featuring Linda's art, that made it possible for me to convey that magical experience to my friends later.
Vision Spa Retreat is focused on all that is soulful and sustainable in spa, so I was delighted to learn more from Linda about how she came to be involved with spa art and what has inspired her in that.
Visit Linda Troeller's website here.
I began by asking Linda how her interest in applying her photographic art in the world of spa came about.
When I started the [spa] project I was focusing on mineral waters.
I had been intrigued by San Jose Purua and Ixtapan [de la Sal] mineral waters in Mexico. After I traveled to Kyushu, Japan to the mineral waters there to shoot, I was led abroad where the word 'spa' evolved - Spa, Belgium. My photographing was guided on to Montecatini, Italy, and Aix les Bains, France, and other historic spas.
Did you come to feel you had a 'mission' through your work?
From the start of the project, I felt a reverence for the 'waters.' That's what I had learned in 1976 from the Indians in Ixtapan's mineral pools.
They would cup the water bubbling up from a geyser and gently place it on their heart, thanking the spirits for bringing them blessings.
My goal for these photographs was to offer viewers sensation and transport them to a 'source' or feeling.
You've developed a distinctive style in your photographs - can you say more about how this evolved?
Years ago 'women with towels wrapped around their heads and terry cloth white robes' was the image for spa relaxation. I traveled the globe in search of the story of the waters and found a different view.
I became transfixed by the infrared lighting, the bubbling surfaces, soaking pools and the beautiful natural environments.
With a focus on diffused lighting, I started to work with high-speed film and movement to express the world I was seeing.
I had pioneered a new vision of blur, mood, atmosphere at mineral water sites.
The photographs had a sensual and spiritual approach which was different from the 'fit' lifestyle [that] spas were relying on at the time.
How did you go about building the impressive reputation you have in the spa world?
I already had an international reputation as an exhibiting photography artist when I started to show my Healing Waters portfolio in galleries.
These photographs grew in reputation largely after the First European Spa Conference in Baden Baden, where Jenni Lipa and Bernie Burt invited me to exhibit.
My collectors, Marion Schneider and Klaus Bohm, had purchased 25 and framed them in their Klinik, Bad Sulza, Germany. They kindly rented a truck so we could transport them to exhibit at the conference.
The dinner cocktail party with my exhibition immediately caught the attention of the owners of Aveda and Kirsten Florian, among others.
I soon had invitations to shoot advertising photos at spas as well as to be collected for the walls of treatment rooms, lobbies and rooms of hotels.
Can you say more about how you work with spas and share some examples?
When I shot specially for a spa on an assignment, they were very aware they were getting 'my style.' Of course, it was often a successful blend of ideas.
Rochele Oliveira Silveira, marketing director, Kurotel, Brazil, cut out a selection of photographs she saw in magazines that felt she could imagine for her spa. Then she made a list of topics that were to be covered. She hired models, hair and makeup people which we agreed would add to the presentation. We allocated enough days to be creative together.
At the time, they were adding chocolate treatments, which were new to the spa, and the chocolate was produced in their city. One day about 1000 very fine pieces of chocolate arrived for me to work with. That was a huge temptation! We started with covering the entire bath with the pieces and shot. Then we finally melted it down and ended up with a bubbling choc bath shot we loved.
I already had an international reputation as an exhibiting photography artist when I started to show my Healing Waters portfolio in galleries.
These photographs grew in reputation largely after the First European Spa Conference in Baden Baden, where Jenni Lipa and Bernie Burt invited me to exhibit.
My collectors, Marion Schneider and Klaus Bohm, had purchased 25 and framed them in their Klinik, Bad Sulza, Germany. They kindly rented a truck so we could transport them to exhibit at the conference.
The dinner cocktail party with my exhibition immediately caught the attention of the owners of Aveda and Kirsten Florian, among others.
I soon had invitations to shoot advertising photos at spas as well as to be collected for the walls of treatment rooms, lobbies and rooms of hotels.
Can you say more about how you work with spas and share some examples?
When I shot specially for a spa on an assignment, they were very aware they were getting 'my style.' Of course, it was often a successful blend of ideas.
Rochele Oliveira Silveira, marketing director, Kurotel, Brazil, cut out a selection of photographs she saw in magazines that felt she could imagine for her spa. Then she made a list of topics that were to be covered. She hired models, hair and makeup people which we agreed would add to the presentation. We allocated enough days to be creative together.
At the time, they were adding chocolate treatments, which were new to the spa, and the chocolate was produced in their city. One day about 1000 very fine pieces of chocolate arrived for me to work with. That was a huge temptation! We started with covering the entire bath with the pieces and shot. Then we finally melted it down and ended up with a bubbling choc bath shot we loved.
Another spa I worked with is Toskana Therme, Bad Sulza to help them find a 'brand' image for their new underwater and light pool. The director, Micky Remann, gathered a group of people who enjoyed the salt waters while I experimented with strobes and various amounts of lighting for a few weeks, which was a leap of faith to work so long.
From those sessions evolved their brand image that is on all their products, ads and hundreds of stories written about them. That image also led the spa to commission 30 large-scale wall images from my archive for their Berlin spa, Liquidrom [opened in 2002 but now sadly not operating].
I have been on panels at the International Spa Association [ISPA] which has led to shoots. Paul Haslauer was sitting next to me [at one such meeting] and hired me on the spot to fly to Austria and shoot his Rasul [Turkish mud treatment] and other unique treatment products.
My spa photographs have been utilized in many magazines from Forbes to Marie Clair to Spa Management to a recent Spa Magazine piece [on Toskana Therme with writer Margaret Pierpont, March 09].
Two beautiful art books have come out of Linda's work. This is what she had to say about the process and what it did to expose her talent to the spa world...
From those sessions evolved their brand image that is on all their products, ads and hundreds of stories written about them. That image also led the spa to commission 30 large-scale wall images from my archive for their Berlin spa, Liquidrom [opened in 2002 but now sadly not operating].
I have been on panels at the International Spa Association [ISPA] which has led to shoots. Paul Haslauer was sitting next to me [at one such meeting] and hired me on the spot to fly to Austria and shoot his Rasul [Turkish mud treatment] and other unique treatment products.
My spa photographs have been utilized in many magazines from Forbes to Marie Clair to Spa Management to a recent Spa Magazine piece [on Toskana Therme with writer Margaret Pierpont, March 09].
Two beautiful art books have come out of Linda's work. This is what she had to say about the process and what it did to expose her talent to the spa world...
My art monograph, Healing Waters, Aperture, [with Yves Treguer] came out in 1998 and fueled international interest from magazines. It is a classic, as I heard from a woman who saw it in a spa in Japan recently [at the launch of BISA, Japan in March 2009].
It won a Best Book award and one of the photographs, 'Jacuzzi, Calistoga Hot Springs, Ca.' won Best Pictorial Photograph, Pictures of the Year [see this stunning image above, 3rd down]. VP Gore presented me the award their 50th Celebration at the National Press Club, Washington, DC and at National Geographic. This photograph was published in Life Magazine and over 100 publications worldwide.
It won a Best Book award and one of the photographs, 'Jacuzzi, Calistoga Hot Springs, Ca.' won Best Pictorial Photograph, Pictures of the Year [see this stunning image above, 3rd down]. VP Gore presented me the award their 50th Celebration at the National Press Club, Washington, DC and at National Geographic. This photograph was published in Life Magazine and over 100 publications worldwide.
My extensive spa assignments led to Power House Books to create my book, Spa Journeys with writer, Annette Foglino. The book utilized my already-shot images and Annette and I went to an additional ten spas.
This was challenge to visually describe the spa’s key assets, so that the book didn’t overlap too many 'massage' or 'pool' shots.
One of the most beautiful shots I made was of Miraval [Resort, Arizona], where horse therapy is a major focus. I was able catch horses running in the field. Their CEO at the time, bought it as an art image for his office and it is in the book.
[Author-signed copies of both books are available direct from Linda's website.]
Many of Linda's images involve the body, which is an important focus of spa of course.
Whenever working in the spa realm, I am most often working with the body.
To include people in the images, I would sometimes arrive a few days early at the location and get to know someone who would enjoy being photographed, or the spa would let me choose a member of their staff.
It has always been important for me to have the subject I am working have passion for the project and sign releases.
My spa projects have led me to create 'before and after' portrait photographs of women who have been part of the Total Transformation® Workshops of Kat James. She created the hair and make-up for my recent Self-Portrait [see below], at her North Carolina event last fall.
I have always been interested in the human form. I was a model at the 'Nude in the Landscape' workshop when I was an assistant at the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite, as a graduate student getting my MFA [in Photography 1971-75 at Syracuse University].
I had the chance to model for Lucien Clergue, France and Eikoh Hosoe, Japan who each taught me their methods of working with the body. Eikoh is working more from his own sense of space and angles, where Lucien helps the model mould themselves into the scene through dialogue and suggestions. A photographer of people has to understand both aspects.
Additionally for me, there is the sense of the body’s aura. By finding a way to tune into the model's radiations and moods as the shoot progresses, I kind of read their deepest creativity which can help us work better together.
Another important element in her photographs is the building, the architecture of the spa.
In the past fifteen years there has been an increasing number of spas that have utilized architecture as a means of presenting their function and purpose.
I loved the challenge to photograph the Mandarin Oriental spa property in Miami, and [this past April] Toskana Therme and it’s sister space, the new Saunaworld, Bad Sulza, Germany.
This was challenge to visually describe the spa’s key assets, so that the book didn’t overlap too many 'massage' or 'pool' shots.
One of the most beautiful shots I made was of Miraval [Resort, Arizona], where horse therapy is a major focus. I was able catch horses running in the field. Their CEO at the time, bought it as an art image for his office and it is in the book.
[Author-signed copies of both books are available direct from Linda's website.]
Many of Linda's images involve the body, which is an important focus of spa of course.
Whenever working in the spa realm, I am most often working with the body.
To include people in the images, I would sometimes arrive a few days early at the location and get to know someone who would enjoy being photographed, or the spa would let me choose a member of their staff.
It has always been important for me to have the subject I am working have passion for the project and sign releases.
My spa projects have led me to create 'before and after' portrait photographs of women who have been part of the Total Transformation® Workshops of Kat James. She created the hair and make-up for my recent Self-Portrait [see below], at her North Carolina event last fall.
I have always been interested in the human form. I was a model at the 'Nude in the Landscape' workshop when I was an assistant at the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite, as a graduate student getting my MFA [in Photography 1971-75 at Syracuse University].
I had the chance to model for Lucien Clergue, France and Eikoh Hosoe, Japan who each taught me their methods of working with the body. Eikoh is working more from his own sense of space and angles, where Lucien helps the model mould themselves into the scene through dialogue and suggestions. A photographer of people has to understand both aspects.
Additionally for me, there is the sense of the body’s aura. By finding a way to tune into the model's radiations and moods as the shoot progresses, I kind of read their deepest creativity which can help us work better together.
Another important element in her photographs is the building, the architecture of the spa.
In the past fifteen years there has been an increasing number of spas that have utilized architecture as a means of presenting their function and purpose.
I loved the challenge to photograph the Mandarin Oriental spa property in Miami, and [this past April] Toskana Therme and it’s sister space, the new Saunaworld, Bad Sulza, Germany.
With architecture, I want to show the actual building itself in pure presentation. When I add models/ people, I want the building to have the most weight and stature with the people more muted.
One of the owners of GB Hotels, Chiara Borile, brought me to photograph their spas, hotels and famous region including the [thermal waters resort] Abano Grand near Venice, as they have future plans to create a travel book using these images to promote their spa.
One of the owners of GB Hotels, Chiara Borile, brought me to photograph their spas, hotels and famous region including the [thermal waters resort] Abano Grand near Venice, as they have future plans to create a travel book using these images to promote their spa.
[Linda will be presenting on the panel day 'Architecture, Design and Art' at the 2010 Budapest at the British International Spa Association (BISA) Conference in Budapest in June 2010. More information here.]
From contact with Linda over recent years, I know that she consider green issues and sustainability to be an important part of spa consciousness.
I was photographing in Spa, Belgium, when Chernobyl occurred. I sat with the spa managers as they worried about the winds and possible contamination. This experience pointed me toward the value of 'green' for preservation and protection of resources.
I recently created a photo-essay, inspired by Dr Michael Broeg's Clearsprings program in the Ozark Mountains, to awaken the public on our failing health system dependent on drugs and guide us to rebuke the horrific environmental damage in our midst.
From contact with Linda over recent years, I know that she consider green issues and sustainability to be an important part of spa consciousness.
I was photographing in Spa, Belgium, when Chernobyl occurred. I sat with the spa managers as they worried about the winds and possible contamination. This experience pointed me toward the value of 'green' for preservation and protection of resources.
I recently created a photo-essay, inspired by Dr Michael Broeg's Clearsprings program in the Ozark Mountains, to awaken the public on our failing health system dependent on drugs and guide us to rebuke the horrific environmental damage in our midst.
[Sara comments: I have visited Clearsprings since my own private spa-retreat venture (now closed) was established in the Ozarks also. The value of setting such place in nature like this is enormous and a further topic for discussion.
The above photography is just one example in the very moving photoessay series Linda created, included here to illustrate her compassion and versatility. She sees an important role for art in relation to social/health issues, as her 1988 TB/AIDs Diary also demonstrated. Back to Linda ...]
A few years ago, the ISPA [International Spa Association] 'Green' members offered me to show my photographs during a meeting. Last month, the British International Spa [Association] in Japan embarked on a preservation project for hot springs which utilized one of my photographs for the kick-off.
Linda is on-the-spot and up-to-date with trends both in the spa world and in photographic art.
Just like the trends of spas have changed dramatically over the years, so has the style and technical direction of photography. I am now shooting exclusively digital. It took experimentation with a few digital cameras to find the one where I could create my atmospheric and movement images.
The 'look' of photographs is very competitive today with so much visual media so I am working on new ideas as well. One is a series of 'future' oriented images that reflect our fascination with science fiction, living to 100, and the green approach.
I have begun a series of portraits taken in steam rooms that have a sense of whimsy and fantasy.
The above photography is just one example in the very moving photoessay series Linda created, included here to illustrate her compassion and versatility. She sees an important role for art in relation to social/health issues, as her 1988 TB/AIDs Diary also demonstrated. Back to Linda ...]
A few years ago, the ISPA [International Spa Association] 'Green' members offered me to show my photographs during a meeting. Last month, the British International Spa [Association] in Japan embarked on a preservation project for hot springs which utilized one of my photographs for the kick-off.
Linda is on-the-spot and up-to-date with trends both in the spa world and in photographic art.
Just like the trends of spas have changed dramatically over the years, so has the style and technical direction of photography. I am now shooting exclusively digital. It took experimentation with a few digital cameras to find the one where I could create my atmospheric and movement images.
The 'look' of photographs is very competitive today with so much visual media so I am working on new ideas as well. One is a series of 'future' oriented images that reflect our fascination with science fiction, living to 100, and the green approach.
I have begun a series of portraits taken in steam rooms that have a sense of whimsy and fantasy.
To learn more about Linda's work and to follow her contribution to the creative imaging of spa, see the links below.
Vision Spa Retreat would love to hear reader's views on the role of art in spa. We're especially interested in image-creation that helps to promote awareness of environmental issues, in particular those concerning water, and how human health and well-being can be supported within that.
Visit Linda Troeller's website here.
Linda is based in New York City (phone 646 752 1528): she adds, 'I welcome clients and editors to come by and see my work at my Chelsea Hotel studio, when they are in town'.
Lucie International Photography Awards, 2008
Lucie International Photography Awards, 2006
Pictures of the Year, Pictorial, 1992
Women of Achievement, Douglass College, 1991
Lucie International Photography Awards, 2006
Pictures of the Year, Pictorial, 1992
Women of Achievement, Douglass College, 1991
