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Sven Wieg
@sven.wieg
Travel photographer based in Germany
My name is Sven and I am 28 years old. I was born and raised in the Ruhrgebiet in Germany, where I am still living today. It is a culturally diverse region that is very industrial influenced. The people here usually don’t have that much, but they are very warm and honest with you. I love that mentality. My mom worked as a professional photographer, so I studied this art early on. I got my first own camera as a Christmas present from my girlfriend. We had just finished our school and planned to do a pilgrimage route along the northern Spanish coast (Camino de Santiago). We wanted to capture our memories with the new camera.
“El camino del norte“ was pure minimalism: Only the two of us, nature and some other people, looking for the meaning of life. Everyday we stood up early, walked up to 30 kilometers and slept in the simplest hostels. It was physically demanding, but we enjoyed every second that we walked together across wide fields and along endless beaches. One picture of this journey was my very first own print. Today it still hangs in our apartment and always reminds us of that wonderful time in Spain.
"That’s what I love about photography: The ability to capture moments and its emotions."
"After this experience we totally fell in love with travel and since then we explored many different places and cultures all around the globe."
When we are looking for new destinations, our primary goal is to explore and enjoy untouched nature. But it’s also very interesting and enriching to get to know different people. You often have subconscious prejudices or think you already know everything. But when you travel independently you get deeper and more honest insights into people’s lives in different parts of this world. And often you experience stories that you will never forget in a lifetime. In Bali for example, we met two young locals who saved our first day. We visited the famous ‘Pura Tanah Lot’, a Hindu temple that stands on a stone in the water. We really enjoyed this place, stayed there pretty long to see the sunset and after that we wanted to take a taxi back to our bungalow. Unfortunately the area was controlled by a local mafia, so nobody wanted to pick us up. Every call was cancelled when they heard the temples name. Even the two guys from the local gas station were not able to organize a driver for us. But when they saw us sitting on the street, they stopped their work and drove us home with their private motorcycles for over 30 minutes. They didn’t even want to accept money from us, but of course we insisted. These people didn’t have that much, but they were so helpful! I could tell you more stories like this, but to summarize and conclude:
We experienced this too in South Africa, where my wife and I went to in 2018. It was a big dream of us to go there and fulfilling that dream was an amazing feeling. When I was a child, my grandpa always recorded wildlife documentaries for me on video tapes because I was so fascinated by these animals. When I visited my grandparents, we often watched them together and I imagined to be in these exotic places. Before making our way through the South African national parks, my wife and I invested in more professional camera gear for good photographic results. When we were finally there, the impressions were incredible; the landscapes, the wildlife… And I wanted to capture them as best I could. Actually, most of my pictures are landscapes and wildlife all over the world, but in the near future I would really like to explore new genres and do more people photography.
"It gives you the opportunity to capture very personal moments and convey even more emotions than with beautiful landscapes."
As mentioned before, I always liked photography because I could capture moments. But I got so fascinated by the ability to control the manual mode that I totally fell in love with photography and continued learning about it with the aim of making it more artistic. I was all in and soaking in all the information I could get: watching video tutorials, reading, listening podcasts, and talking to people with the same passion. Another impact was Instagram. Even though I didn’t post my own pictures back then, I already followed people like @charlysavely and the @germanroamers. Although our styles are quite different, Charly is my favorite photographer and she is so inspiring to me. Her arctic touch and orange style motivated me, to get more into post procession and create my own signature. Editing photos is so powerful. It’s like analog photography, where different films produce completely different results.
"I edit photos in a way so that they show my very own view and feeling of the moment. At the same time, I don't want to falsify reality."
In the future I want to continue traveling and see even more of this world. We have already seen unique places like Canada and New Zealand, but I would love to explore Scandinavia and South America, traveling for a longer time in a campervan. Last summer we already traveled this way for five weeks through North America and it was so incredible to stay and sleep just wherever you want. We have had some of our most impressive experiences during this short term vanlife. I would recommend each single person to do it; everyone should be able to experience that level of freedom. Not just in terms of being free in nature, going and sleeping anywhere you want, but also talking about the freedom of ‘things’.
"It may be challenging, but it is so liberating to detach from materialism, and to realize you can feel so good with so little."
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