Corona – was ist mit der Kreativ- und Medienbranche?
Die Corona-Krise stellt die Wirtschaft vor einen Abgrund, die Politik versucht sie zu bewahren. Heute mittag berichteten Finanzminister Scholz und Wirtschaftsminister Altmaier in einer Pressekonferenz, dass sie die Liquidität von Unternehmen aller Größenordnungen gewährleisten werden. Dies soll mit Steuererleichterungen (im Sinne von Fristverschiebung) und der staatlichen Unterstützung von Bürgschaftsbanken geschehen, die uns ermöglichen sollen Kredite aufzunehmen, sogar unbürokratisch und schnell. Diese Maßnahmen machen sicherlich Sinn und stellen in vielen Fällen eine Lösung dar. Dennoch bedeuten sie im Klartext, dass wir die Zeit der Auftragsausfälle mit geliehenem Geld überbrücken sollen, das zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt wieder zurückgezahlt werden soll. In anderen Worten: wir sollen uns verschulden! Genauere Informationen hierüber liefert das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie hier. Read it
A brief history of fashion photography
You want to produce the hottest fashion photography that gets you noticed as a photographer as well as the brand you’re taking photos of. For that, it’s helpful to completely understand the industry. There are certain tips and tricks you can introduce to your photo campaigns, such as for example inserting props, using natural light, or specific make-up and hairstyles for an authentic and modern photo result. However, when it comes to understanding the industry, you need to delve into the history of fashion photography. In this article, we’re going to look at a brief history of fashion photography and how looking into the past can impact the future. Read it
Retrospective on Fashion Week Berlin July 2018
While the Football Worldcup was running, another regular event started in July: Fashion Week Berlin. Other than in winter time the weather was perfect to parade lots of dresses and enjoy a few evening shows and after-show parties. Here’s my retrospective on Berlin Fashion Week S/S 2019. Read it
Berlin Fashion Week A/W 2018/19
It’s that time of the year again: Fashion Weeks! And although I couldn’t go to Paris, or somewhere else, of course, I’ve visited some shows in Berlin, where I’m based, and I’ve had the honor to be the first photographer for Dawid Tomaszewski again this season. Read it
Starting Still Life Photography
I’ve been thinking about shooting stills for a long time already and now I’ve started doing so. I enjoy images reminding of old paintings and Vanitas imagery and couldn’t help but growing the desire to make some own works in this direction. Firstly I love arranging things and make them look good together. That’s why I’ve often created the whole set design when shooting fashion by myself. The problem here is that you need to focus on too many different things and also spend a lot of budgets when you rent a studio AND all the props (given that it is a free project). So you have to be quick and it kind of gets dirty through that. Read it
Heidi’s Christmas Calendar
I really love Christmas time, even more than the holidays. It’s a time when everything is illuminated, the first snow comes and you keep meeting your friends at Christmas markets. You start thinking about how you can make other people happy and you get plenty of chances to do so. There is the tradition of giving gifts which we do on Christmas eve in Germany. There is St. Nicolas’ Day on 6th December and there is the possibility of making someone a little present every day during the advent season – with an Advent calendar. I came up with the idea to do so with a photographic calendar in November 2016 already. Unfortunately for the Christmas season of that year, there wasn’t enough time left to make it happen. So I started the new year of 2017 with the early intent to make an Advent calendar for the next season. And so I started with the first shooting in March already. Read it
Yo, Because
It’s always complicated to plan shootings with famous people. The reason is that they are very busy and finding a date for the shooting is much harder. So when a designer friend and I planned to shoot an editorial with actor Jo Weil, it took a long time until we found the perfect date and location. But there were more reasons for the complicated planning process. Read it
How Summer 2018 Looks Like
To start with the best: I had the pleasure of shooting the new Dawid Tomaszewski collection exclusively for the label at the spring/summer 2018 fashion week in Berlin. It was the most lovely show – the models were slowly strolling on an elongated balcony, which offered a beautiful view over the city of Berlin. All buildings seemed to be white, as well as the handrails, except for the cathedral which created a romantic atmosphere. The clouds were dramatic in their shapes, but still white and peaceful and they created a great light. Read it
It just happened…
Here comes a rather funny shooting story. Back in March, I was shooting a great editorial (Dreams of a Samurai) with a new team. It was Konstantinos and Rocco doing the styling and make-up/hair and although I haven’t met Konstantinos before, I just had him on the phone, and Rocco I have seen only once before and it was already a while ago, we had a lot of fun and it felt right working together. Our model Emma was gorgeous: sweet and very talented, she blew my mind with her powerful poses so that after half of the outfits we had to slow her down to loosen the total image. It was unusual that we were all smokers (shame on us) and so we had many little occasions to talk in between and discuss either the next shooting steps or just chat about other things. And so the stylist told me in such a little pause that he had a brand new corsage from Dawid Tomaszewski, which has never been shown before and he planned to work it into the shooting. The corsage had the word “safe” stitched on it with sequins and beads and it looked very arty. Konstantinos wanted to combine it to a NIN3 earring saying “SEX” and so he wanted to hint at the importance of safer sex, especially for the LGBT community. He told me that the corsage was meant to be a homage and for the world aids day. The idea of implying a message into the editorial pleased me and I told him to do it if he’d like. Read it
The 10th GreenTec Awards 2017
I’m a little late with this entry as it’s already about three weeks ago, but the GreenTec Awards are still fresh in my mind. I’d met a lovely menswear designer, Joyce Darkoh, and we worked on a little Lookbook with sustainable fashion by DARKOH. The label is all about suits, mostly bespoke. The wool e.g. comes from English sheep and is eco-friendly. I fell in love with the idea and really enjoyed working with Joyce. The suits and pictures were then presented at the GreenTec Awards’ exhibition, May, 12th. Read it
Remove the Fences!
I don’t want to sound like a guerrilla person, but sometimes I’d just like to go to forbidden places and/or do shootings on other people’s private property. Don’t get me wrong, I would never try to invade someone’s privacy. But you can find lots of abandoned and lost places (which usually are private property) or public spaces that are not accessible with a camera. In a time when everyone can take a photo with his or her smartphone camera and no one seems to care, a photographer’s DSLR seems to be seen as a weapon, a danger that has to be removed immediately. But why? Read it