Ever Changing World
I realised that having a purpose as well as a long-term goal behind my pictures is very important for me. Over months and years, I can now add new chapters to these projects until one day, I can hopefully finalise them in a published book.
The Leica M6 is not a camera that is the first choice for landscape photography, so why did I still choose it despite those disadvantages? Well, first of all, a rangefinder has a smaller physical footprint which makes it perfect as a secondary camera.
Thank you so much, Paul, for giving us the chance to learn more about you and your work. Would you like to start by introducing yourself to our readers?
I appreciate your interest in my photography a lot and hope that I can share some interesting thoughts and insights with you and your community. For almost one decade, I’m active as a landscape photographer, but during this time many things have changed. The majority of that time, I was in a state of finding my voice in the space of landscape photography. During this time of self-exploration, I realised that having a purpose as well as a long-term goal behind my pictures is very important for me. I decided to work on projects where I define a theme and some variables that stay the same throughout the whole project. Over months and years, I can now add new chapters to these projects until one day I can hopefully finalise them in a published book. The result of this approach is that I am currently working on an aerial photography project with digital cameras and a film photography project which is shot only on black and white film.
Do you remember your first contact with photography and the moment when you felt it was something you wanted to do?
My first contact with photography was way back in my youth when I got my hands on a beginner DSLR camera. However, this was not a key moment for me that really woke my interest in photography. This happened many years later on my first oversea trip from Germany to San Francisco after my graduation, where I would study and work for about half a year. I still had the same camera with me, but this time being alone in a completely new environment, it intuitively just felt right to document my impressions for myself. The second key moment, which changed the focus of my interest in photography to landscape photography, happened during a trip to Guatemala and Costa Rica years after San Francisco. The natural phenomena of active volcanoes, uninhabited rainforests and wildlife really caught my interest. During that trip, my passion for nature and landscape photography was born, but the journey of finding my voice as a photographer had just begun.
From that first contact with photography, it was an incredible evolution until it became an unparalleled passion, wasn’t it? One of those that require sacrifices of all kinds, even in the most trivial things for a traveller. We remember that post of yours about the Azores, where you explained that instead of enjoying a fancy breakfast at the hotel, the kind that all bloggers like to photograph, you ate cold sausages straight from the jar at 6 am, waiting for a sunrise that never happened due to the rain! But these kinds of sacrifices are well worth it, aren’t they?
From the start, when photography was just a hobby to the point where it has become a substantial part of my life, many things have changed and to accomplish certain goals, it does indeed require some sacrifices. The absence of comfort during my trips is easily forgotten when the photographs turn out as expected. Even if one or two approaches don’t work out as you mentioned, if there is a long-term goal, this doesn’t really bother me. But let’s be honest, some of my currently running projects require a lot of preparation, planning and also financial resources. That means, in the end, that I have to cut time and money for other things. I haven’t been on vacation with friends for quite some time, and others in my age have bought their first or second car already. I’m trying to be reasonable and almost only buy used camera gear to save some bucks for a photography trip instead. Nevertheless, I have chosen this path myself, and I am very happy to be able to go on this journey. So to answer your question, yes it feels like it is worth it, especially when I imagine to one day see these projects come together as a book. I feel like I have reached a point where most of what I’m doing is driven by intrinsic motivation, which wasn’t always the case. There were many moments in the past when I thought about giving up on photography, and today I’m glad I didn’t follow these thoughts.
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