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
(Per)mission to Shoot
I’m going to tell this in a short and funny way because somehow it really is funny. It’s a matter of permissions to shoot at certain locations. Usually, it’s a legal gray area or it depends on how you interpret stuff. E.g. there is a law called „Panoramarecht (§59 UrhG)“ in Germany. It says that you are allowed to take pictures of art and buildings when they are situated in public areas, because the artist (or architect), by displaying it that way, must be meaning to devote his work to the community. The ones who take pictures have a copyright on their images and may distribute them as they like, as long as they don’t infringe anyone else’s rights. Read it
Shooting at the Golf Course
Shooting at a golf course was the best! A little dream came true thanks to charming stylist Neesha Meusch who managed the permission at Golf Club München Riem, just as she had done before with the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski München for our shooting with Caro Daur. She has the sweetest voice and everyone is at her feet when she friendly asks for something. She was a great bonus for the shooting. Not only because of the amazing styling but also because the golf players weren’t very happy about us walking around and she was the one to calm them down a little bit. In fact, they were right: being there was quite dangerous. When a golf ball hits your head you can actually die from the consequences. Luckily we all survived, so we have a great series now with talented new face Verena from PARS Management which is now published at Solstice Magazine. Read it
Shooting with Caro Daur for FACES Magazine
Last winter I had the amazing idea to shoot with a blogger and generate some more range on my social media channels. I didn’t have someone particular in mind, except I knew which stylist I wanted to ask for the project. She immediately said yes and so we started contacting some influencer girls who seemed to look interesting for a fashion editorial. Luckily they all said no – so we had to look harder… 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
Braids Test: Lady of the Flowers for Trend Privé Magazine
This is a little test on braids and fishbone braids with Model Ania P. from Most Wanted Models hair styled by Isabell Schwan. It’s a commercial-like story, very female, very light. I tried to have fewer shadows and soft light, the colors very fresh but earthly with some colourful touches that come with the floral styling and foreground. This is a series where I tried to style the model myself. I enjoy doing the styling sometimes when it’s an easy-going shooting with fewer people. Here we were only three persons in a very private atmosphere, nice and personal. I’m aware that styling is a thing much more complex than choosing some dresses and shirts and combining them. Stylists have to follow complicated rules when it comes to the seasons, trends, crediting, etc. which I admire. A thing that I intentionally didn’t mind in this case. Once in a while you just have to do your thing (; But this is why I like to say that this is just a test shooting that doesn’t make it into my actual portfolio. 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
The best shooting mishaps
Sometimes shit happens. We all know that and as long as you can laugh about the past, you clearly have learned something from the situation. That’s the essence of growing with your job. I’d love to share my best and/or funniest shooting breakdowns with you. As you might have already read in the other article (Why I name my editorials after songs or lyrics) I had some troubles when shooting editorial “Trouble”. If you haven’t read it yet, you are welcome to click on the link in brackets and read about that cold and rainy shooting night. Read it
The Special Editions QUIZ
Editing is a great part of a photographer’s work. A one day shooting automatically implies several days of retouching work. Of course, the amount of time that is necessary depends on the shooting and images themselves and it can vary a lot. Editing can be fun, at least when you start doing the first pictures and see the result. After a while, it can surely get exhausting as your back and eyes get stressed from sitting and staring as well as your hand starts hurting. Read it
Why I Name my Editorials after Song Names or Lyrics
To correct myself: Not every editorial of mine gets the name of a song or of some lyrics. But many of them do and I’ll explain to you, why. But first let me tell you about the editorials that I give independent names to. Sometimes while I shoot, I already have a certain feeling coming up, that a special word or sentence is the right description for. They just pop up in my head. That’s when I realise, that I’ve already found the perfect name for the series, without even having searched for one already. The perfect example is, when I worked with Celso Da Costa Hamelink for the first time and he had already organized everything for the shooting. Model Stephen Thompson should be shown in very classy styles, looking like a rich business boy on his way to work. It was very much “GQ style”, though the editorial got published on The fashionisto, which I think was perfect for it, too. Read it
Cinematic Homage to Romy Schneider
Fashion editorial ROMY exists in two different versions which are for both print and digital media. One version consists of photographs while the other one is made of animated GIFs. The latter adds up to an innovative storyboard taking the term moving image upon its actual meaning. The GIF version contains landscape formats only, according to the format of movie screens. In every image, a certain element moves constantly while the rest of it is frozen. The photographic version follows the same plot. Read it
Modern Bacchanalia aka. YOLO
Fashion photography is, on purpose or as a side effect, soever advertising. It shows a product that the customer is supposed to desire because he likes the impression of the picture. The AIDA principle is determinative of everything concerning advertisement: ATTENTION (somebody’s attention is engaged) – INTEREST (he or she is interested) – DESIRE (the customer desires the product) – ACTION (the customer buys it) The logical follow-up goal is winning costumers for future purchases too. Therefore brands create master plans for labels that are designed to elicit the sympathy of costumers. Read it
The Beauty in Typography
Typography is the supreme discipline in the field of design that concerns the direct communication of things to a viewer or reader. Contentual coherences are plotted by the use of letters forming words. They are perceived as many little pictures. The typeface subtly promotes the content of the text, though it keeps fading into the background. The typeset, grey levels, and white spaces define where to look first and last at a text design – stroke width, serifs, font style, and size emphasise the statement. Although typography shows a great diversity in classifications, it all together pursues the objective of conciseness. Read it
How I Became a Fashion Photographer
I grew up with my father taking pictures with an old Russian Zenith camera every time an event took place or the family went out for a walk. He was a semi-professional photographer who used to be booked for weddings back in his 20s when digital photography wasn’t established yet. Since I was always curious about the procedures in a photo lab, the first internship I chose at the age of 14 was in a photo studio. Unfortunately, the photographer didn’t develop her films on her own but used to send them to an external lab. Read it
Travelling in Time
Humans and machines can connect and interact through interactive media. It starts with a simple app right up to complex installations that seem futuristic to us. The development of such media has not yet grown up, but there is a high potential provided for the future’s design. Even though we are living in the age of rapid transition, those developments cause mixed feelings: sensations of freedom & restriction, interconnectedness & loneliness, the power of control & the ignorance of where this leads to are all there at the same time. Read it