This is the time before the word geek was used. Ever. And I sure was one. At the age of thirteen, I tried to build underwater housings out of wood for my first Super 8 Camera, which of course didn’t go very well. The imagery I created on the other hand was not so bad at all. For years I kept creating, so for me, the next logical step was to get into the professional world. My first job as an intern was at a Sports Picture Agency and I went around the world to earn my first credits with a lot of fun but of course not much money involved. To improve my skills and also understand the advertising world, I went to art school in Duesseldorf/Germany to study graphics, design and arts.
I financed all that working as a freelance sports photographer.And then my first advertising jobs came in. I never forget that first call. It was a Minolta Ad created by BBDO/Germany. They called me while I was on an assignment for the Soccer World Cup in Italy 1990.And that was it. I was hooked. Specialized to deliver the best quality in sports imagery, I used the biggest cameras I could get, from medium format Hasselblad to 4×5 Linhof large format cameras, all modified for my extreme outdoor and action needs. It was fun to show up with huge cameras where others would only use 35 mm SLRs.
Nowadays it is all digital – although for some of my own projects I still use analog large format cameras -and it is again about precision and the unique vision and eye the photographer needs to have. Exploring new grounds every day, pushing the limits of my gear and myself. To balance the fast pace world of commercial photography, I love to get grounded by doing charity work, or go on road trips with my 1965 Plymouth Barracuda to create fine art photographs with my 4×5 large format analog camera, play little jazz piano or simply paint with oil on some large canvases. Most of the times with a good glass of wine in my other hand.
