Born in the US, raised in Germany I returned to the country of my birth in my early 30`s. By that time I was working as a camera operator and Director of Photography on the first reality shows: MTV`s “The Real World” and ”Road Rules”. The following several decades I worked on a variety of shows, “The Mole”, “Project Greenlight”, “Richard Branson: The Rebel Billionaire”, “The Apprentice”, “America`s Next Top Model”, “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” to name a few of them.
While traveling around the world working on those shows I started to take pictures, first as personal memories but at some point I found that the process of taking photos opened up some new door in me, it helped me get away from the craziness and hectic of shooting a TV show. It led me to a calmer, quieter place. Soon I couldn’t wait for the next day off to find a new picture. After percolating for some time, I found the photographic artistic style I was searching for.
When the sun is out, I read a book. When I see dark clouds of an approaching storm rolling in, I get my camera gear ready, head out and try to find the picture calling me.
I am trying to create a very specific emotion in the viewer and that is the feeling of stillness. The quiet that comes with it. Visual silence. Seemingly contrary to my intent of creating stillness: every picture is the result of accumulated time; they capture the movement of wind and water and clouds and the change of light. Every photo is the equivalent of combining a thousand or even several thousands of still images if they would be taken as a motion picture.
My pictures might seem to contain an element of a secret life, pictures with a supernatural , mystical feel: every picture is part of what we all see and hidden in everything we see are countless mysteries.
Another aspect of fascination for me is that every photo has a magical component while taken; something inexplicable happens in the process, although I pick the location, the frame, and the general mood, I never control the exact end result of any picture. There are so many factors that influence the outcome of each photo: a change of wind or currents, a small change of light can drastically alter the picture. Two pictures taken a few minutes apart can look very different depending on any of these factors.
When you look at my photographs I hope you feel what I do when I`m sitting by myself in a church or looking at a beautiful landscape: tranquility.
