Spuren

Hokitika 2013Manches erscheint einfach so vor unseren Augen.

Manchmal realisieren wir nicht , was wir eigentlich sehen, wir spüren nur, dass es da etwas gibt, was uns dazu treibt, dieses Bild zu machen.

Erst später, wenn wir erneut anschauen, was wir geschaffen haben, sehen wir, was wir bemerkt haben, wofür wir aber zum damaligen Zeitpunkt blind waren.

Dieses Bild ist aus der Serie <Spuren> und hat 2010 einen Preis im NZIPP Wettbewerb gewonnen.

Ich bin nicht sicher, ob die Juroren sahen, was ich sah, aber ich hatte es ja auch nicht gesehn, als ich den Auslöser drückte.

Wäre es nur der Sonnenuntergang, nur die Hotelfasssade oder nur die raue Struktur von Kies und Asphalt gewesen,

ich hätte es wahrscheinlich auch getan.

Aber all dies zusammen führte mich weiter, als ich es entwickelte, und tut es bis heute.

Ich bin neugierig, was hinter diesen Vorhängen im 2.Stock passiert, denn dies scheint der einzige „belebte“ Raum zu sein.

Bemerkt ihr, dass dies der einzige ist, vor dem jemand den Balkon benutzt hat ?

Und da ist sie, die 4. Ebene, die, die hinter dem Bild liegt.

Die Spur, die mich neugierig machte, unbemerkt zuerst. Auf die meine Seele reagiert hat.

Jahre später übernachtete ich in diesem Hotel an der unglaublichen Westküste Neuseeland’s.

Leider konnte ich nicht in genau dieses Zimmer.

Wenn Zeit wirklich keine Tatsache, sondern ein Konzept ist, dann wäre ich auf diese Weise in meinem eigenen Bild gewesen…

Mehr <Spuren>  here

 

traces

Hokitika 2013


Some things just appear before our eyes.
Sometimes we don’t realize what we’re seeing, we just know there is something that urges us to make the picture. It is only later when we revisit, what we’ve created, that we see what we have been noticing, but were blind to at the time.
This is one from the “traces” series. it has won an award in the 2010 New Zealand NZIPP
competition. I am not sure if the judges saw what I saw, but then I also didn’t really see it, when I pressed the shutter.
If it was just a sunset, or just the hotel facade or just the rough textures of the gravel and the asphalt, I probably would have made it just as well.
but all those together now lead me on, when I look at it now.

I am drawn to what happened behind those curtains on the second floor, as this room seems to be the only one with life in it.
Notice, that this is the only one, where somebody actually has used the balcony ?
And there it is.

The 4th layer, the one behind the frame. Maybe that was, what drew me in. What my soul was reacting to.

Years later I stayed in that same hotel on New Zealand’s beautiful west coast.
Sadly, I couldn’t get into this very room.
If time is really not a fact, but a concept,
in a way it feels like I would have been in my own picture…

for more “traces” please go here

a good life

Dan's_momBIGGER

 

this project is very close to my heart.

the people I photographed here have a special place in my life and heart. not because I know them well.

but because they were very gracious and opened up their hearts and shared lot’s of very precious moments with me.

I  had one question for them. I did not tell them the question beforehand.

I asked after they had sat down and settled in.

“what would you consider to be the essence of a good life?”

“to reach my fullest potential, to be in my heart space, working towards the completion of my karmic cycle, sweetness, free choice to be what I want”,

were among the many answers I got.

In my approach I aim to show them in a state of contented peacefulness, creating in the viewer the wish to one day get into a similar state of mind.

the posing includes their hands and I aim to recreate gestures that have commonly recognizable meaning.

this project is not finished, I am currently working towards a book…

for more pictures please go here

or up to gallery/a good life

 

 

still lifes

 

This was the proposal for my major project for L6 2011 at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute:

<The project shall be Still Lifes photographed on tabletop.

They shall be of  collections of items that are linked together by a theme like origin or place, time and age, trades or professions.

The lighting shall vary between classic rembrandt lighting (45degr.) and sidelighting, simulating natural light.

The tableaus shall include one prop that is out of place but not instantly recognizable and that shall disturb in some way either by being out of context or creepy or even alive.

They’re going to be treated in a way to make them look painterly and be on the edge off being recognizable as photographs.

I will strive to present them in printed versions.>

 

now you can probably only see those strange ingredients, when you look at the big versions here

or in the gallery/still lifes

when I had them printed on matte paper and matted and exhibited, some people actually thought that they were paintings…nice.

flowers


In this project I’m striving to get to the essence of the flowers I’ve chosen. By isolating them and putting them under very classical lighting, these small beauties are given the chance to shine and show their uniqueness.

In flower photography, as well as in portraiture, it is crucial to capture the right moment. My subjects are not only at the peak of their energy, but at the pinnacle of their life. The combination of the moment that is conserved photographically and the painterly look those pictures are developed towards enables me to get a timeless elegance which honours those petalled bloomers, that are overlooked so often.

to see more of those pictures

look here

or go up to gallery/flowers

africa 2008


Togo Boy

this picture was made on assignment for a company called <Music is the Language>, a wellington company that organizes workshops for german-learning students all over the world. usually there’s a couple of rappers, freestylers and/or musicians, who perform and invite students to practise their language skills by writing their own lyrics or poetry and performing them in front of the class. this evokes lots of excitement and joy and provides a wonderful learning experience. at the shows, i was fortunate to perform and photograph more or less at the same time, and in addition to that, got to travel Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal.

thanks Werner, David, Roger und Sarah

to see more of those pictures

please look here

or go up to the gallery/africa