Who are you?
I was born in 1953. Since the 80's I have been working as a photographer in advertising, video and visual communication.
I started photographing in my early youth. Recently I even found a photo from 1967, at the funeral of Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. Photographed from the TV, it was probably my first "Multimedia Photo". Since then, photography has always accompanied me. At the age of 21 I bought the first 6x6 Bronica SLR. We set up a simple photo lab in a friend's basement: my first black and white films were developed there and the first photos were printed.
A short time after I had the opportunity to assist a commercial photographer. There I started to get in touch with young visual artists and developed close friendships in the following years. I photographed and made reproductions of the works of artists and fellow art students for exhibition catalogues etc. and accompanied them during their foreign scholarships, documented their exhibitions or assisted in building up exhibitions. It was then, when I got in touch with galleries, which engaged me to continue my documentations.
After my years in an advertising agency, I got the opportunity to work as a photographer for the medical school of Ruhr University Bochum, where I created photographic material for lectures, posters and video documentations for the entire teaching staff of the faculty.
After 8 years of work at the medical school I decided to work as a self-employed commercial photographer. I have focussed on still life, automobile motives, catalogue photography and video for about 25 years.
What are you inspired by?
I'm interested in the photography's diversity and the uniqueness of nature. I'm not necessarily interested in a lifelike image. Often I change the pictures until they meet my expectations. This includes retouching, where I add things or omit, reinforce or weaken colors and contrasts.
I'm usually not seeking for motives, I don't necessarily work conceptually, but find the motives in my environment that I upgrade through various processing techniques to my aesthetic/artistic sense and later add to collections.
What was the last movie you watched?
"Colonia Dignidad" by Florian Gallenberger, a film about a torture center of the secret service of the Chilean government and a German Nazi as henchmen of the Pinochet regime.
I was really impressed by the documentary "The Salt of the Earth" by the German director Wim Wenders about the photographer Sebastião Salgado. The film shows Salgado among others in his months-long missions in countries in crisis and trouble areas in the world, such as Rwanda or the starvation in the Sahel. It is almost unbearable, how Salgado could live with this ordeal of violence. Today he is devoted to nature photography with impressive images. I was very touched by this film.
Do you have any role model?
No.
What is your next creative project?
At the moment I am working on a photo book. Its working title is "Walks in Bochum Southwest" and it's about landscapes and nature close to where I live. In addition, I develop my portfolio. Through this work I can follow up with projects I have been following during a long period of time and which I may now complete.
I would like to travel more often to the Balkan region. Perhaps there will be an opportunity for an exhibition someday!
What do you like about Portfoliobox?
I usually design websites for me and my clients myself, but there's no need to reinvent the wheel. For my portfolio website I tested a free theme and a purchased theme that came close to the design of the current homepage, but then didn't work as I had imagined. At Portfoliobox I like that I can try out new things unlimited and that it is available in German. The creation of the website is complemented by an extensive support area, where all essential settings are described. Support queries are answered and done quickly. I like the simple design of the pages – the pictures are brought in focus perfectly.
I am satisfied with Portfoliobox.
