About me

Hi, I’m Chris, a photographer with a passion for capturing the wild beauty of our everyday life. I’m looking for those rare moments, those visual experiences and those special impressions that remind me to be mindful and that somehow feel like the beginning of a story.

My journey into photography began with a workshop led by French photographer Pierre Stahl in Antibes, France. In the morning he sent us to the then sleepy village of Valbonne to take pictures, and in the afternoon we developed our films. During those summer weeks, almost 45 years ago now, I learned a lot from Pierre Stahl, but above all, he encouraged us to learn to “see”.

I got my first darkroom equipment at a flea market. An old Liesegang enlarger, a darkroom lamp and a few trays. From then on it was Ilford’s FP4 and HP5, Ultrafin and Microphen that I put my pocket money into. Then I got a new Kaiser color enlarger. I experimented with color, but quickly realized that my budget wasn’t enough. I stuck with black and white and a few years later I trained as a black and white reprographer.

At that time I had the priviledge to work alongside Stephan Brammen and Stephan Schaal who both went on into fashion photography. Both have had a strong influence on how I view photography and especially black and white photography as a trade and how I „see“. And, of course, this reflection would not be in any way complete, if I were not to mention the immense inspiration and influence I got from reading all I could get on Ansel Adams.

From analogue to digital, from Minolta to Rollei, to Nikon and Leica. What has changed most, however, are not the brands and the technology. It’s the focal length. The older I get, the shorter the focal length I tend to use. Nowadays, my Leica and my Summilux f1.7/28mm is all I usually take with me.