About the Photographer
A passion for Black and White Photography
From the very beginning of my photography in the 1980ies I was already fascinated by the special mood of black and white. I got my first camera and went out into the forests and mountain ranges of my home in Hesse in the middle of Germany. Almost naturally landscape became my favourite photographic object. In Winter I went out to catch shapes and forms of ice and snow and I became aware that it had been often the special light conditions in unpleasing weather which attracted me most. And the medium of black and white was just perfectly supportive to these affections.
In 1987 I visited Iceland for the first time and I got immediately addicted. Although I travelled quite a lot to other countries and enjoyed those places too, over the years I had to return to Iceland again and again. The highlands and the interior deserts in their various and sometimes very extreme weather and light conditions never stopped to thrill me.
Geometric shapes and structures in extreme light have always fascinated me and so they are mirrored in most of my photographs. But looking back into my own development in photography I feel that my view on these landscapes has changed with time. Starting with the great majestic sceneries in a classical sense I came to the minimalistic essence of a landscape recently.
Technique
Black & White photography and alternative darkroom techniques
In terms of technique I changed in the early times consequently from 35mm to 6x7cm and mid of the 1980ies to 4”x 5” large format parallel to my focused interest on landscapes. In this time I also did a lot of darkroom work. Nowadays I work often digital, but still I enjoy the work with my 4” x 5” or even with the 8” x 10” whenever I can manage to have them with me on outdoor activities. Scanning the negative after individual development is todays standard procedure. Prints may be worked out digitally and printed on high quality papers by use of Ultrachrome K3 inks. For some series I use so called "alternative" darkroom print techniques, as Platinotype, Kallitype or Cyanotype or I still do silver gelatine printing.