Out of Office is your home for creative living. Explore our upcoming creative experiences and programming here. Creative Ways of Living: Lenneke BendersOn trading city noise for garden hours, and learning to work with the seasons instead of against them
Welcome to Creative Ways of Living — a monthly series where we’re widening our aperture around more creative (and gratifying!) ways of living and working. Ways that allow us to build our identities around all of the vibrant – and varied! – parts of ourselves, and explore different paths, where life feels alive, inspiring and energizing. In this edition we have a conversation with Lenneke Benders. Describing herself mainly as a photographer, she is an all-round creative who recently exchanged the high-paced rhythm of Berlin for the calm of the countryside. Len reached out to me some time ago, suggesting a collaboration, which turned into her visiting me in Barcelona, and a shoot at one of our Studio Sessions 🌼
Tell us more about your path. What’s your training and background, and how would you describe what are you doing now (for work and in life)? Growing up I actually wanted to do theatre, but when that path wasn’t open to me I turned to photography, partly out of a stubborn wish to prove I could make a living from something creative. I studied twice, first something technical and then at the art academy, though most of what I know I picked up after school. I moved to Berlin straight away after my studies, and that’s where my work really began. At first it was all about people, documentaries, stories - until COVID, which changed a lot for me. I became much more introverted, which also was reflected in my photography: I turned toward subjects, which is still where a lot of my work lives. I love experimenting and trying new things, and I think I always will. Right now I feel another shift happening - slowly turning from subjects back toward people and not only photographing them. Because lately that’s what I find myself craving again. 
Len captured one of our artist-led studio sessions in Barcelona
I learned it wasn’t only me, and it wasn’t my fault: I simply needed to build a life around me, rather than squeeze myself into the one that’s expected to be normal. What were some pivotal transitions in your life and how did you navigate them? The biggest transition came right at the start of my working life, with my first full-time job. I slowly started to crave a different way of working: more flexibility in my hours, more freedom, more room to travel. Eventually it came, partly forced, through a burnout. For a long time, I thought that was my own fault, asking myself why I couldn’t keep up when everyone else could. But I learned it wasn’t only me, and it wasn’t my fault: I simply needed to build a life around me, rather than squeeze myself into the one that’s expected to be normal. 
Travels to Morocco
So I started my own business, one that gives me flexibility, and the freedom to live and work from anywhere. The travel was the dream, but being able to rest when I need it was the real necessity: it’s what keeps me from burning out again. It took a few tries to find the version that works for me, but I got there, and I think of it now as floating with the river instead of swimming against it. Now I’m in the middle of the next transition: the move to the countryside. I’ve always lived in cities, but I’ve started craving something greener, more spacious and calmer, somewhere I can live more with the seasons. And with it comes a new pull, to make things beyond the borders of photography. I’m excited to see what it brings. I think a lot of us slip into a rhythm that feels normal only because everyone around us lives it - and end up giving up the very things that make life feel alive. What does “creative living” mean to you? Creative living, for me, is a way of living that’s shaped to fit you, not the other way around - including how you choose to work. It’s not putting work first by default, but actually feeling what you need in a given moment. And it can be small: right now, for example, I’m writing this interview while sitting at a pool in the sun, because after three days of laptop work inside, I just needed something different. I think a lot of us slip into a rhythm that feels normal only because everyone around us lives it - and end up giving up the very things that make life feel alive. For me, creative living is simply stepping out of that rhythm now and then. It doesn’t have to be every day; it’s about noticing what you need, and finding a way to let it in.
You moved from Berlin to the German countryside. What led to this decision? I loved living in Berlin for a long time. But a city like that also takes a lot of energy, so many possibilities, so many people and noises all at once. At some point, I noticed I was escaping it more and more by traveling, and every time I came back, the dread of being in Berlin became more and more. That’s what made me start thinking about moving. Where to was still a question, but I knew I was craving a big change, more space, more quietness, a slow way of living, and that’s what led me to the countryside. We were lucky to be able to make it happen. Half a year in, I’m genuinely happy. My energy rises a little every day, because being outside recharges me rather than drains me. I don’t miss the city the way people expect - if anything, a coffee and pastry at a café feels special again now, a treat rather than a habit. What I love most is the physical side of life here: being in the garden, making things with my hands, creating with the nature around me. And the quiet finally lets me rest, which is exactly what sparks a new side of my creativity. In our recent Creative Living cohort, where you joined us as a guest, you mentioned you are planning your work according to your rhythm. What does that mean to you? It means really listening to my body. I know myself well enough now to feel when I need rest, and when I have energy to create. I’ve come to work with the seasons rather than trying to be a hundred percent all the time: seasons for resting, seasons for creating, and seasons in between. The same goes on a smaller scale for my weeks. I plan ahead, usually on the Sunday before, and always build in a buffer day, free of anything, so I can rest where I need without falling behind. What makes that looseness possible is a bit of structure underneath it. I keep my tasks in an app with priority labels, so each morning I know what matters most, and the rest flows around my energy. I also like to merge work and life rather than separate them, so a day might hold anything from the garden, a meet-up with a friend, to a task for a client. It’s not always perfect; I’m still learning, especially not to over plan, but it’s the freest and most balanced I’ve ever felt. The other practices keep me curious, and creativity doesn’t only come through making anyway; I find it just as much in a conversation, a new place, or an afternoon out somewhere unexpected.
Do you have other creative practices besides photography? And how do these influence your point of view? Yes, many. I create recipes from the garden, gather things on my walks and turn them into something. I go out to see a new exhibitions or collaborate with friends on their creative projects. I’ve always needed creativity beyond photography - if it were my only outlet, I think I’d lose some of the joy of it. The other practices keep me curious, and creativity doesn’t only come through making anyway; I find it just as much in a conversation, a new place, or an afternoon out somewhere unexpected. What I had to unlearn was the feeling that everything I made needed a result worth something - money, or beautiful enough to hang on the wall. I’ve learned it doesn’t have to be anything at all. It can simply be an experiment, or a moment of play. What is inspiring you right now? Three things, mostly. The first is discovering new places. When I travel, everything is different - the colors, the textures, the light, the people - and all of it feeds me. But it doesn’t have to be far; it can be as simple as a new lake nearby, or a stretch of nature I’ve never walked before. The second is being around like-minded people and places - communities like Out of Office, where a single conversation can spark something. The third is the most simple of all: the little details I find around me. I make sure to go slow and notice the small things - the color the light makes, or how an object changes a space.
What’s shifted since the move is the pace of my inspiration. In the city it used to be quick and constant - the trends, all the things I’d see and immediately want to see how it would fit into my own work. Out here it’s slower. I might notice a single dead tree in a field and simply want to return to it, photographing it the same way again and again to see what the landscape does around it over time. That slow kind of inspiration is exactly what I crave now. What is a dream of yours of something that you would like to create, a way you’d like to live, or something you’d like to try? Let’s put it out into the universe 🪐 What ties my dreams together is the wish to make something that helps people - somewhere in the field of creativity and that has grow out of my own experience. The first I’ve already started - I call it a collection of friends. So many people around me make beautiful work but don’t have the capacity to put it out into the world, and I’d love to carry some of that for them: a shared platform, physical or online, where their work can live. A way for all of us to move forward together.
The bigger dream is further off - a place people can come to and leave everything behind, to reset and remember what they actually want to do. Tend a garden, dance, make something, or do nothing at all, but with something underneath it too, so they leave with a little to carry back into their everyday lives. None of these dreams sit within photography, and yet photography is where I am now - and that’s exactly right. I don’t believe in giving dreams a deadline; I’d rather live day by day and trust I’ll get there, step by step. Thank you so much Len for speaking to me. If you’d like to follow along with Len’s journey, make sure to have a look at her website, and follow along on Instagram Founded by Alice Katter, Out of Office is a creative platform offering tools, programming and artist-led experiences to help you live a more creative, inspiring life. Originally from Austria, Alice is a global citizen, having worked and lived in Vienna, London, NYC and now, Barcelona. In between, she has spent months investigating life in Mexico, California, Italy, Cape Town, to name a few. She has a background in psychology, brand, and marketing and over the past years has been focusing on the future of work, and community, programs & culture design for creative networks and companies such as Dropbox, Adobe and kyu collective. She believes in the power of fostering a culture that is not only driven but also leaves room for exploration, play, and living life to its fullest. These beliefs led her to launch Out of Office Network in 2019, and publish her book “Reimagining our Nature of Work” in 2023.
|
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar