I love to take pictures since I am a little boy. I remember that my granny taught me to crochet. I think she expected me to crochet a scarf or something but I tried to make a camera… At the end I was pretty disappointed that it couldn’t take any real photos. My dad is interested in photography as well and was always taking lots of photos during our family travels. So since my parents loved photography and traveling, it has always been an important part of my life and I guess I have inherited this love. The reason why I love being in the nature is pretty similar. When I was a child my grandfather always hiked or cycled with me almost every day, so we spent lots of time in the woods and in the nature and he explained me everything. Also, with my parents I did lots of day trips during the weekends and we went hiking in the Eifel Mountains which are close to Cologne.
Sometimes I watch tutorials on YouTube, sometimes I ask a friend, and for understanding more deeply the analog setting or analog photography I’ve read a book. Most of my knowledge is gained by simply trying and failing though, it’s like homemade knowledge.
I studied architecture and later art history. Arts, which includes architecture, landscape design and photography as well, and history are the big interests in my life. I cannot even name a specific reason, it has always been like that. My parents are interested in history as well, but there is no one who is as enthusiastic like me in my family. So if you ask me where I would go back to if I could travel back in time… My great grandfather, who was born in 1900 always had to tell me stories about the time when Germany was a monarchy with a Kaiser. For some reason this part of history is still very exciting to me. Regardless if it’s about medieval knights and castles or the 19th century. The wedding of Kaiser Wilhelm’s only daughter in 1913 is said to be the last big party of the long 19th century.
There is a similarity between my passion for design and architecture and its precept ‘less is more’ because I think my style of editing is kind of monochrome in the way that I reduce the saturation a lot. I like my edits clean and straight and I really love my photos in a white frame with a white passe-partout, which fits perfectly to the white and light interior design of my apartment. Also I think my way of editing make my photos less naturalistic and therefore a little bit more like an art work; I want to avoid that they look like a 19th century landscape painting, which just wants to please and to be romantic. Though I guess that without photography, I would be painting too (but let’s say different kinds than the 19th century type of painting).
Mostly in summer, I get up real early and try to take some nice shots at a specific spot before I go to work or to university. Other times I enjoy hiking with friends and just take my camera with me; that’s what I enjoy the most. Good company, exploring and taking pictures. I love being in the woods or the mountains, the feeling of being part of a big natural system that we can’t control, that is much more powerful than I am, than we human are. I believe that conveying these feelings, visions and experiences with a photograph, can definitely be called an artwork. That is what I want to achieve.
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