Base location: Berlin, Germany

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Bender was born in 1987 in Basel / Switzerland. To her, a successful photograph is a copy of a relationship. It is not simply a picture but both sides of the lens captured and maintained with respect and trust. It is her passion to search for strong bonds between the visible reality and the invisible intimacy. Therefore she always tries to be open, photography is gives and takes. The picture finds her and she attempts to capture what she sees. If there is the truth to find, Bender finds it in photography.

A picture has the power of simplifying the indescribable and therefore it has a greater legitimate demand for veracity to her. Being a young photojournalist Xiomara Bender's profession expands from documentary and reportage to composing people’s portraits as well as opera and theatre photography.

Bender is fascinated by the nature of people. While traveling she captures the variety and diversity of what ther is to see. Through communication she gets close to what might seem distant in foreign countries and different cultures. This helps her to find the vulnerability and authenticity in genuine and accidental moments and often brings something closer that deserves our undivided attention and unprejudiced sympathy.


When portraying artists, actors and people Bender uses this same approach to find THEIR variety of characters within themselves. This mutually shared moment of time is what she want to show.

Travel drives her passion to search for the fleeting moment, captured by her camera. Suitably empathetic, Xiomara Bender photographs people in their everyday situations, unpretentious and authentic. Staging is a stranger to her, and respect for her subject is all the more important: her images abound with individual personalities.

For the German-Swiss photographer, tolerance and openness go a lot deeper. Xiomara learnt these non- negotiable values daily in her early home life and they unmistakably shape her work as an artist today. Curious about the unknown and open to the world around her, Xiomara left home for India at the age of 17 years to finish her school education. This was followed by training in hotel management, and practical application in the top rank of German luxury hotels. But the passion for photography finally won out over a conventional career: Xiomara decided to make her calling her profession. Instead of climbing the planned career ladder she jumped off; instead of the Director’s office she switched to the lecture theatre of the Berlin Technical Art School, with no return ticket; total risk as the price of uncompromising freedom from convention.

Xiomara Bender
Email: kontakt[at]xiomara-bender.com
Telephone: +49 151 40758134‬