Cornelie Tollens (born 1964) is a renowned Dutch photographer. She graduated from the Photography Academy in Haarlem, Netherlands, in 1990. Throughout her career, Tollens has collaborated with esteemed magazines such as Vogue, Dutch, Elle, and Elegance, among others. Her work has been published in Avenue, JFKmen, Credits, La Vie en Rose, and Playboy, and she has contributed to internationally recognized advertising campaigns for major brands including Mercedes, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Ikea, Nokia, and Martini. Tollens' photographs are frequently displayed in cities around the globe, including Milan, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, Kyoto, and Moscow. Her artistry weaves together primal instincts and youthful innocence, with her images often focusing on themes of emptiness and yearning. The combination of the naked female form with flowers and plants creates intensely sensual and tactile experiences. Exploring themes of eroticism and ecstasy, often flirtatious with the notion of mortality, Tollens finds herself alongside provocative photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Bettina Rheims, all of whom navigate the delicate line between allure and repulsion, as well as beauty and grotesqueness. Her use of rich, velvety hues, subtle noble tones, and gentle color gradations, accompanied by a shimmering light and softened contours reminiscent of "sfumato," pays homage to the traditions of Europe’s finest painters, who are attentive to detail and texture. Some of her works serve as tributes to masterpieces by Courbet ("The Origin of the World"), Manet ("Olympia," "The Luncheon on the Grass"), and Schiele ("Kneeling Girl, Resting on Both Elbows").