Waltraud Nehls
Waltraud Nehls grew up at the foot of the Swabian Alb, developing a deep connection to nature from an early age. The rolling hills, forests and meadows of her homeland were a formative influence and ignited her passion for nature photography. Although she now lives in Hanover, her ability to see what is hidden has remained with her. Since 2009, she has devoted herself intensively to photography, aiming to capture not just the obvious, but also what is often overlooked.
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Her style is characterised by clarity and simplicity, as well as a great love of detail. She pays particular attention to small, fleeting and delicate subjects such as flowers, insects and light reflections. She impressively sensitively plays with sharpness and blur. In many of her pictures, the foreground and background merge softly into one another, and the motif emerges unobtrusively, almost like a fleeting thought. She often works with an open aperture, experimenting with movement and exposure time to reveal more than is immediately apparent.
As well as enjoying the close proximity to nature in Hanover and the surrounding area, she has also travelled extensively, visiting Africa, Brazil, Costa Rica and other European countries. However, the focus remains the same regardless of the location: colour, form and lighting should create an effective mood without the use of digital effects or staged manipulations.
Waltraud's work has won several awards. In 2019, she won the prestigious 'Glanzlichter' competition with her image 'Klatschmohn', and in 2025, she came fourth in the GDT's 'Atelier Natur' category of the internal photo competition with her impressive image 'Sandtannenbäume'. These successes reflect an artistic approach that prioritises integrity and authenticity, both in photography and in encounters with nature.
[ Text 10Photos ]
10Photos says: "Waltraud Nehls inspires us with her quiet photography, which has such a strong effect." Her pictures do not depict sensations, but sensitivity. They invite us to look, to linger, and to experience nature as more than just a backdrop. With her technical skill, unerring sense of composition and poetic visual language, she creates works that are not spectacular, but have a lasting effect. In an age of visual sensory overload, her photography is a welcome exception. We are therefore more than enthusiastic about Waltraud's view of nature and the atmospheric way in which she captures it in her pictures.
You can find further pictures by Waltraud Nehls on the GDT website .
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