France portfolio, Fred Stein

Fred Stein was born on July 3, 1909 in Dresden, Germany. As a teenager he was deeply interested in politics and became an early anti-Nazi activist. The threat of Fascism grew more and more dangerous and after the SS began making inquiries about him, Stein fled to Paris in 1933. IIn the midst of upheaval, gathering war, and personal penury, Stein began taking photographs. He was a pioneer of the small, hand-held camera, and with the Leica which he and his wife had purchased as a joint wedding present, he went into the streets to photograph scenes of life in Paris. He saw hope and beauty where most people would only see despair. He also became acquainted with and photographed some of the leading personalities of Europe. He worked unobtrusively and quickly, valuing the freedom to capture the telling moment that reveals the subject in its own light, not as incidental material for photographic interpretation. He preferred natural or minimal lighting, and avoided elaborate setups as well as dramatic effects. He did not retouch or manipulate the negative. Having a deep commitment to social equality and a concern for his fellow man, he became a member of the Photo League. Though portraits were his main income-generating work and he photographed many people on commission, he generally worked without assignment, shooting people and scenes that interested him. He would then offer his work to publishers and photo editors of magazines, newspapers, and books. Stein died in 1967 at the age of 58. His portraits and reportage had appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books throughout the world.

Arnold Genthe

Born in Germany to a family of scholars, Genthe was a recent Ph.D. in classical philology when he came to the United States in 1895 to work for two years as a tutor. On his days off, he walked the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco, where he began to photograph. After publishing some of these images in local magazines, Genthe decided to open his own studio, specializing in portraits of prominent locals and visiting celebrities. Genthe’s work and studio were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fire–save for the Chinatown images that had been stored in a bank vault. He published those early images in the 1909 book Pictures of Old Chinatown. After the fire, Genthe re-established his studio in San Francisco and in 1908 spent six months photographing in Japan. In 1911 he moved to New York, where he continued to work as a successful portrait and pioneering dance photographer. With New York as his new home base, Genthe also traveled and photographed throughout Europe and the United States

Thomas Finkler

Thomas Finkler is a fine art landscape and nature photographer based in nuremberg, germany, bavaria.
Born 1965 in nuremberg. Graphic design studies at the university of applied sciences in nuremberg (1988-1993). Since then passion for landscape and nature photography. Following his studies, he worked as a graphic designer with focus on print media and digital image processing (1993-2013).
Thomas Finkler is mostly inspired by the nature and countryside near his hometown. Short distances to the favorite hot spots make it possible to watch the interplay of light and color through the seasons.
Twenty years of professional experience as a graphic designer had a big influence on his photographic view. His style can be characterized as a search for mood and minimalism with a keen eye for light, forms and details – always trying to find the balance between order and chaos.

Gertrude Fehr

The photographer Gertrude Fehr, born in Mainz (Germany) in 1885, is part of the first generation of professional women photographers. After an apprenticeship in a Munich studio, she opened her own studio in 1918 where she employed up to six people. In 1933, the political situation forced Gertrude Fuld to leave Germany with her future husband, the Swiss painter Jules Fehr (1890-1971). The couple settled in Paris and opened the Publiphot school in 1934, of which she became the director. The school formed students in the art of advertising photography, of which Publiphot was a pioneer. In Paris, Gertrude Fehr was also close to the New Photography movement. She experimented with different techniques – solarization, the photogram, photomontage, etc. – and exhibited her work alongside the great photographers of her generation such as Laure Albin Guillot, Florence Henri and Man Ray.
At the end of the 1930s, Gertrude and Jules Fehr settled in Switzerland and opened a successful new photography school in Lausanne. The school was transferred to Vevey in 1945 to become part of the Ecole des Arts et Métiers (currently CEPV). Gertrude Fehr can therefore be considered as the founder of the Vevey Photography School. The teaching of color photography that she proposed in 1950 contributed to the school’s reputation in Switzerland as well as abroad. Until 1960, she gave classes in portrait, fashion, advertising and journalistic photography. Monique Jacot, Luc Chessex, Jean-Loup Sieff, Yvan Dalain and Francis Reusser can be counted among her many students.
Upon her death in 1996, Gertrude Fehr bequeathed all of her archives to the Fotostiftung in Winterthur and to the Musée de l’Elysée. The latter includes some 1,500 prints, about one hundred negatives and several archive binders.

Elizaveta Porodina

In her experimental fashion and fine art photography, Elizaveta Porodina travels through time and space, extracting the underlying emotions in her entrancing productions. The Moscow born studied clinical psychologist plays with melancholic symbolism, sets connotations, sometimes ambiguous, sometimes honest and obvious – her range widely varying between cinematic, fashion and almost documentary imagery. Whether in dramatic black and white or vividly colored artworks, the Munich based photographer is a master of dark romanticism.

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Toni Schneiders

Toni Schneiders took up an apprenticeship as a photographer at Menzel Studio in Koblenz in 1935 graduating with a master’s certificate in 1938. During the Second World War he was drafted and deployed as war correspondent in France and Italy. After the war, he returned to Koblenz and photographed reportages as well as advertising and landscape photographs. In 1946 he moved to Meersburg, where he opened a photo studio in 1948. In 1949 Schneiders went to Lindau as an independent photojournalist, where he lived and worked with his wife Ingeborg from 1952 until his death in 2006. His archive is housed in the F. C. Gundlach Foundation[1] in Hamburg, his war photography in the German Federal Archive[2] in Koblenz.
In 1949 Schneiders co-founded the avant-garde photography group fotoform alongside Siegfried Lauterwasser, Peter Keetman, Wolfgang Reisewitz, Otto Steinert and Ludwig Windstoßer. With their graphically designed images, the fotoform photographers referred to the photographic trends of the 1920s and early 1930s and drew attention to the creative possibilities of photography. Toni Schneiders was also significantly involved in the development of the so-called subjective photography in the 1950s, which became internationally known through exhibitions and publications under the title Subjektive Fotografie[3] compiled by Otto Steinert. Until his death in 2005, Schneiders was in close contact with Peter Keetman. Toni Schneiders’ images are distinguished from those of his companions by their sensitive capturing of people in everyday life.

 

Claudia Wycisk

My grandmother gave me a push into the right direction to buy a camera while we were having coffee together on a Sunday afternoon. That was in 2007. From that moment on, photography has grown into an indispensable part of my life. Through photography I had the chance to meet a lot of wonderful people with whom I collaborated on great ideas and spent a fantastic time. Letting my imagination run wild and working with people, without being restricted by any external requirements is motivating me to go on. Photography means a lot to me, not only because it has changed me as a person, but because it just lifts me up, even if a day is not going so well. Just switch the camera on, switch the problems off and find myself again.

I’m autodidact. In 2007 I bought my first SLR camera. It was a Canon 400D with the Canon 50mm f/1.4. Since 2009 I am working only on people photography. I photograph only digital. In 2011 I bought my new baby the Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. The 50mm and the 24-70mm are my favorite objectives.
I use the Canon 50mm f/1.4 outdoors only. If I work indoors I use the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 and the Canon 50mm f/1.4 with a softbox from Proxistar 60 x 60 cm or a 95cm Phottix Oktagon Softbox with the Yongnuo YN-560 II speedlite. That’s it!

The only and important thing for me in order to make good pictures is to create a connection between the model and myself. If there is no connection I can’t take emotional pictures. That’s why the communication before every shooting is so crucial. With some models the connection is great from the first moment of meeting each other, but this doesn’t always happen. But that’s ok, too.

For me it is very interesting to work with the models until they trust me enough to let go. You can practically see how they become more themselves with every picture that I take. Other than that, I follow no fixed rules to take good pictures. Many things happen spontaneously. This is great, because from my experience, spontaneity brings the best results.

Good pictures don’t depend on the equipment, but on the eye to see the things in the right moment!

Heinz Hajek-Halke

Heinz Hajek-Halke (1898–1983) was a German experimental photographer.
Hajek-Halke began with his first photo experiments in 1924, and was hired one year later by the news agency Presse-Photo (where he worked together with Willy Ruge). He also briefly cooperated with Yva (Else Neuländer). In 1933 Hajek-Halke was required by Goebbel’s Propaganda Ministry to fake documentaries. He escaped, however, the grip of the Nazi party and moved as Heinz Halke to Lake Constance. There, he created scientific image series in the field of small animal biology. These were macro shots, which he made with an extremely large format camera. He also explored techniques of chemical and light manipulation in distortions and enlargements of his small subjects.
In 1937, Hajek-Halke travelled to Brazil where he produced, amongst others, a documentary about a snake farm. After his return to Germany, in 1939, he was conscripted by the German army and worked as an aerial and company photographer for the Dornier aircraft enterprises in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. After a short time as a French prisoner of war, Hajek-Halke started his own snake farm and made a living selling the snake venom to the pharmaceutical industry.

Chargesheimer (Karl Heinz Hargesheimer)

Chargesheimer’s photographic oeuvre includes both social documentary images of postwar Germany and more experimental endeavors that reveal his extensive technical knowledge of photography. Following World War II, Chargesheimer, who was born Karl-Heinz Hargesheimer, documented his native city of Cologne, photographing scenes of daily life and taking portraits of politicians and visitors to the city, including Louis Armstrong. “I want to photograph more and more of real life, so that I can show and explain to people things they cannot see for themselves, perhaps because they are too near them to see properly, or because they are afraid and run away from them,” the artist once said. In his more experimental works, Chargesheimer created abstract montages by applying chemicals directly onto photo paper and negatives.

Peter Keetman

Keetman’s extensive portfolio combined nature and motion studies, experiments, industrial and applied photography.
Peter Keetman (1916–2005) was a central figure in German post-war modern photography,
Characteristic of Keetman’s work is his continuous and imaginative exploration of the camera’s potential to create rather than just capture images.
Keetman’s photographs unite the period’s two main aesthetic currents: On one hand there is the modernist intention to form, experiment, and abstract – on the other hand there is the wish for a humanist relationship to the world as well as a turning towards reconstruction, the city, and nature, up to its most fundamental elements.
Keetman stated that he discovers the “great picture” in the smallest details – and translates them into abstract images.
His bold, black and white, high contrasting photographs become abstract as a result of looking so closely at unusual details of different items, often including mechanical structures with reflective surfaces.

Christian Zieg

I was born on January 7th 1971 in Erbach/Germany.
In 1991 after graduating from high school I decided to become a physical therapist which is my main profession today.
I have been living and working in Koblenz/Germany since 1995.
My passion for photography started in 1993 whilst traveling through the USA. My goal was to capture the stunning and varied beauty of the landscapes. This didn’t turn out to be quite as easy as I thought. My photographic failures motivated me to start learning. I taught myself in an autodidactical way with a Canon AE-1 Program camera with manual focus.
Having to set up the camera manually taught me how to be precise when adjusting the focus, metering and chosing the appropriate apertures.
In 1998 I purchased my first autofocus camera, again I chose a Canon which is the brand I still use today.
I started to show my pictures to a wider audience in 2005 with my first exhibition where I presented my early landscapes.
The decission to set up my first website in 2006 was also the start of my second line of business, nature photography.
My photographical subjects are landscapes, macros and wildlife.
I’ve also been teaching photography since 2016. My goal is to give people the opportunity to learn how to handle and understand their cameras.
My students learn all the aspects of photography including composing images and editing them with a computer.
Being at one with nature through my camera is my passion.
I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm and love of photography with my photographs.
I feel rewarded when my pictures and teaching inspire those who follow my work.

Interview with Christian Zieg

Website: www.christianzieg.com

 

Guenter Knop

Inhabiting a world of their own, Knop’s photographs radiate a boundless sensuality, time, space, and object seamlessly merge into one enhanced by a carefully restrained background, a timeless work of art emerges.

Philomena Famulok

With my images I tell about me and my inner darks.
I am a photographer and visual artist from Germany. Mainly I work with self-portraiture, with different cameras and techniques, analog and digital. I am creating collages, mixing painting with photography and sometimes write little texts as an addition to my images.
My primary focus is on subjective and personal documentary, conceptual and fine art photography.
In various series and projects I deal with personal questions about identity, reality, perception and various forms of remembering.
In the process I am expressing mostly internal processes: The aching, disturbed and traumatized parts of life and identity are of particular importance for me in my work.
My visual language is associatively, lyrical and reduced and always with a spotlight on the personal, emotional and psychological meaning of an image

Nils Udo

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Carsten Witte

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Hannes Caspar

 

I’m a professional photographer based in Berlin, specialized in portrait, fashion & nude photography.

At the center of my work is the human form. What fascinates me is making the aura of a person visible with just a few means. Often the small details tell the story. I work with all the possibilities a photographer has. Lately, I prefer analogue-cameras to put my aesthetic ideas into being.  Hannes Caspar

Lina Tesch

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Oliver Rath

Ever since some creative know-it-all came up with this widespread witticism, saying “One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words”, the necessity to say anything about Oliver Rath is basically obsolete. Year of birth (78), place of birth (Heidelberg) – who cares about it anyway? His mover/shaker-mentality, his DJing-past, his talent to translate boredom of one thing into a passion for another one – it is all nice things to say about him, but you actually don’t need to know. His DIY-enthusiasm, that built up the whole technical foundation of his existence as a photographer, his mindscape that no school in this world could have teach him, his creative lunacy that’s hidden beneath this Frankish and easy going surface – they are all pretty ornaments for writings like these, but still: anything you could say about him doesn’t come close to the impression of his pictures.
Those are pictures of a maniac. His imagery is infiltrated by codes of urban hedonism, yet ruptured by sometimes prankish, sometimes caustic humour. It is a hard and rough picture language, a language without diplomatic attachments or compromise, but fuelled with unchecked temper and elegant to subtle sense for semantics. He takes everything in that makes a good picture: geometry, contrast, perspective, arrangement. But more than that, he’s a master of those little things, that push a good picture to become an outstanding one. He is the advocate of maximizing impacts. He’ll find the big talk even in the smallest gestures. He might just slam you in the face with a picture. But he might lick your wounds with the very next one. His sense for the right sentiment is without comparison, be it on national or international scale. Call him man of the moment. What do I say? Call him a depicting chronicler of the Zeitgeist. Well, why do I say so much anyway? Just find one of his pictures and call him your new favourite photographer.

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Ruth Bernhard

 

 

Ruth Bernhard was born in Berlin in 1905, and studied at the Berlin Academy of Art. After moving to New York in 1927, she began a career in commercial photography. Almost a decade later, she met Edward Weston, whose compelling images convinced her that photography was indeed a creative medium. In 1953, Bernhard moved to San Francisco where she continued to live and pursue her many photographic interests. Bernhard is associated with the history of Northern California’s wealth of eminent photographers, among them Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, and Minor White. In a career spanning more than seven decades, she created an imposing body of work. Distinguished by their exquisite use of light, her images have been internationally recognized and acclaimed by her peers. Radiant still lifes and nude forms reflect her passionate search for the universal connection of all things.

 Bernhard’s work has been exhibited and included in the permanent collections of major museums and universities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Mexico, and has been published worldwide.



Andreas Feininger

Feininger combined an architect’s love of precision, space, and technique with an artist’s love of sweeping vistas. Although an American citizen, Feininger did not come to the United States until he was 33. Son of the late acclaimed artist Lyonel Feininger, he was born in Paris in 1906, and graduated with highest honors in architecture from schools in Germany. At the time, Feininger was using a camera as a reference aid in creating his building designs. The camera became his mechanical sketchbook.

Commissions were scarce for non-European citizens in the depressed economy. After a year’s work in France for the legendary architect Le Corbusier, followed by a struggle to find employment in Stockholm, Feininger turned his attention full-time to photography. He sold his first photos in 1932, moved with his family to the United States in 1939, and in 1943 became a staff photographer for LIFE magazine where he completed more than 430 assignments in a twenty year span.

Full of towering skyscrapers, broad swaths of road, and angles of geometric perfection, Feininger’s works are masterful in their technical excellence and panoramic grandeur. Such timeless images as New York Landscape Seen From Eight Miles Away in New Jersey, 1947 are notable for their harmony, balance, and grand scale. Through Feininger’s trained eye, the beauty and intricacies of both the natural and man-made world were magnified and intensified. From the broad span of bridges, exuding progress and power, to the symmetrical perfection of the skeleton of a carbon viper, Feininger’s images revealed a new aesthetic of order and geometric perfection. Even a seemingly utilitarian object like a doctor’s head mirror possesses mesmerizing, symbolic qualities when seen through Feininger’s lens.

Feininger had said that the city had attracted him since his earliest days as a photographer. But in time this love grew to include all the aspects of the city and its buildings, its people, its cars and traffic jams, its confusion and even its ugliness. I see the city as a living organism: dynamic, sometimes violent, and even brutal, he stated.