A Wider View

I saw that you’ve been interested in street photography since childhood in your bio. How did that happen? What was your first experience with photography?

Photography has interested me since my early childhood. I always wanted to take pictures in the circle of family or friends. Maybe because I did not want to be in the photographs myself. Maybe because I wanted to know why the heads were always cut when someone else was taking family pictures. Maybe because as a kid I loved giving orders to the adults while taking a picture. I can’t say for sure anymore…

Certainly, Helmut Newton was a great inspiration, whose works I admired regularly in the Playboy magazines of my father. What I still know is that I wanted my own camera at about eight years and finally I bought a Russian Zenit SLR with my pocket money. From that point on I photographed in black and white with slide films, because it was cheaper. As an optional subject at school, I had photography for years, so I got to know a lot about the techniques and the work in the darkroom.

Street photography was not known to me at this time. It was in 2009 when I came across the name of this type of photography.

So, how did you get into street photography specifically?

I’ve always loved shooting in the urban environment. The term “street photography” I perceived in 2009 with the rise of social networks.

Actually, for me this type of photography has always been documentary photography. But in fact, these terms don‘t play such a big role for me. In any case, a stay in Berlin in 2009 was the start of my focus on this area of photography and my dealing with the topic. I still enjoy it and I think it will not change that fast.

How would you describe your “Wider View” project? Why did you pick that name and what does the project mean to you?

A wider view, these are open spaces and oases with a view of the city, the sea, and the places that give us a little air and invite us to stay. There is a longing for a little peace in the bustle of the city and the desire of its inhabitants for freedom in their environment.

You said you’ve been working on this project for 4 years – was it your intention to create this project when you started out? If not, how did it evolve into a project?

I am a collector of pictures, I have no conceptual approach when I go photographing. Only after weeks, months or just after four years I design a series according to different criteria. The quality of the pictures is crucial – the similarities have to open from my perspective, only then a series develops from my perspective.

I see a lot of images that speak to solitude – at least that’s what I see – is that what you see?

I see that the inhabitants of cities often seek exactly this encounter with loneliness. Take a deep breath, leave the stress of the city behind, take a break and enjoy the wide and empty space. I search for these situations and I observe other people in their state of calmness or solitude. Then I try to capture these moments with my camera.

How do you isolate a single person in an urban environment?

This is, of course, to a great extent just coincidence. On a beautiful afternoon at the Holocaust memorial, a lady with a red jacket sits looking in the direction of the towering houses, and exactly in this moment none of the thousands of tourists normally moving around the area is to be seen. Such a moment is very difficult to plan. Besides, waiting for this situation like this seems almost impossible. Good luck and good chances are just the surprising companion in street photography.

You’ve got a real eye for lines and composition – how do you do that or how did you learn to do that?

Unfortunately, I can not give a plausible answer to this question. I did not learn how to compose pictures or pay attention to the graphic structure. There are things you have inside yourself or not. A great help for me were and still are the great painters. In their work you can observe what composition and image structure really mean.

That’s an excellent idea. What great painters inspire you?

German expressionists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Frank Mark or Otto Müller. I love the color, symmetry and composition of these works. But of course many more, both modern and old masters.

On another topic, how do you curate your work? All of the images you’ve chosen are top-notch and you haven’t included too many.

I collect pictures, at some point the first pictures are combined in terms of composition, graphic and color elements. The idea is to put these together in a series of pictures. This series of pictures is always supplemented by new pictures, others are taken out. This goes on until I am satisfied…then the series will be released.

I use at least twelve and a maximum of twenty-four works for a series. Of course, each series has its better and less better shots. But I’m careful to keep the level high on average.