Allgemein – milansoos.com

26. März 2025

Some Grid

August 2024, Munich, Germany

This screenshot is straight from Capture One. I remember preparing these images with Instagram’s grid in mind.
Well, that workflow just got flushed down the drain—Instagram decided to change the layout!
A well-curated profile, once utilizing the now-gone iconic 1×1 format, suddenly looks like a mess. I’m so frustrated about this!
How can someone create images for a format that’s so unstable, only to lose all their work due to a corporate decision that suddenly favors Reels? There are still many of us who primarily use Instagram as a photo-sharing app.

19. Oktober 2024

I got up early today, drank my coffee, and went for a photo walk.
Upon my return, I was amazed by some of these pictures—those colors and divine details are mesmerizing.
But that’s only as long as I’m looking at them on my 4K monitor.
I mean, I exported a copy for Instagram, but I deleted it as soon as I saw the draft on my phone! What a shocker—it didn’t work at all, not even a bit, even though it looked perfect full-size, in its entirety, with all its depth.
It’s insane to spend all that money on a Z8 body and a 4K monitor (the latter alone costing 2.7K), only to present your work on an sRGB smartphone that’s just 2-3 inches wide.
Recently, though, I’ve started having fine art-quality images printed!
How about we meet up for a coffee, and I’ll bring a few prints to show you in person?

25. März 2024

This Blows my Mind

New York City, NY, 2000

It just blows my mind how lucky I am that I had my first year of photography education in a still completely analog medium!

I happen to belong to a micro-generation, just a 6-year cohort called xennials. We were born 1977-1983 and grew up analog, but we were still young enough to fully learn digital. Looking at this year 2000 hand-made print of mine reminds me of how far we came from those analog times. We used to take a long breath to decide how to compose a single shot, and even leave the black edges to show that it was indeed what one captured on the spot.

Just recently I was part of a team on a large commercial shoot that involved some creative packshots as well. One product label was somewhat damaged, so the question came if the customer already had a 3D image of said product, or if we indeed needed to go on and build a white tent around a bottle, in order to properly photograph a very reflective chrome like logo. (Chrome surfaces tend to look black in a studio unless you see the reflection of something white or bright.)

It couldn’t have been funnier as one of us proclaimed: „Guys! This is a historic moment, we do this manually for the very last time, before CGI takes over! Lets do this!“ and we went on to hold a huge white fabric around the product to expose just the label to be comped in later.

And there you have it. Mere 20-something years down the road we are now experiencing the next adventure, that is computer generated imaging, CGI.

A difficult shape, a ribbed glas is still easier to picture in a studio playing around with lights, but a label, a shiny logo is almost an old-school craftsman´s passion to do in real life.

What a time to be alive.

15. Oktober 2023

Lana Grossa Casting

There were so many amazing kids showing up for this casting session we did with a lovely team. I really enjoyed that day creating these images. All we wanted was to match the outfits to our fine young models. These photos were thought to be used only internally, but why not share them over here? They are just too cute to hide in the archive.

Aug 2023. Munich, Germany

1. November 2022

Work holiday in Verona

No assignment, no NDA, no customer or guidelines: there only was a cancelled job in Munich and a spontaneous idea for a 2-day city break in Verona Italy.

I love the freedom of pondering around and discovering new places through the lens. Kind of level 2 to that is when pictures match up and pairs, sets of 2´s emerge.

On day 1 i´d see a tree trunk being washed down the river, the other day im suddenly in front of a bush seemingly swimming on the water. The light goes up: of course if i put these 2 images together, they really start to enhance each other and call for a new way of reading. In my mind, it becomes a tragic story of a single tree: once the trunk is shown next to it, the bush appears to be the crown of the tree.

Verona, Italy, 2022

20. September 2022

Business Card as Film Negative

London, UK, 2007

One had to hold this business card up to the light to read the contact information as if it were a film negative. Once handed out, people instantly started zooming in and out, composing pictures through the unexposed middle section of the translucent foil.

I always received great feedback on this creative card. It’s a shame I still have so many left. Shortly after I had them made, I decided to leave London and embark on a journey that took me eight years of travel—during which I didn’t exactly need a business card in anarcho-primitivist, permaculturist, activist, and, let’s admit it, hippie circles.

8. April 2022

Glass Ceiling

New Series / Work in progress: I´m currently looking for participants, feel free to get in touch.

A glass ceiling is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic (typically applied to women) from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. – Wikipedia

An unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities. – Oxford Languages

The term „glass ceiling“ refers to the sometimes-invisible barrier to success that many women come up against in their careers. – BBC

13. März 2022

Full Frame No Cut – Haha

Radio City Music Hall, New York, 2000

This A4 enlargement was to see how to dodge and burn a final print of a 35mm film negative.
It has my lab instructions on it: where to make it darker, to watch out for the middle to have an even gradient, but also to have it cut! I´m surprised because I remember myself taking pride in not cropping at all, respecting the moment to compose the shot.
It seems I cheated indeed!
The actual final print is in a private collection.

(Now thinking back, I´m pretty sure it got a new fake black edge.. One had to expose the paper using an enlarger, then remove the negative, mask the undeveloped image so that the desired new edges remained uncovered, and then give some extra white light to have the emulsion turn black, hence creating a new frame.. as if it was the unexposed shine through outer side of the full frame negative..)

12. Februar 2022

Erwähnung in der Süddeutsche Zeitung

https://jungeleute.sueddeutsche.de/malerisch/ Süddeutsche Zeitung 28/08/2017

21. Dezember 2021

Imagekampagne für eine Kaffeerösterei

[Ad] Recent work for a coffee roasting manufacture in Munich.
These are typical images i enjoy doing but i would not showcase them in my portfolio. I particularly like to use a 3-light setup shown on the first image here, though. Two soft lights from the side and from behind, and a beam of rays hitting just a strip: kind of a morning sun atmosphere that goes well with a cup of coffee.

15. November 2021

Der kleine Prinz der Gentrifizierung

Apr 2016, Budapest, Hungary

To the Memory of Attila Ónodi (2003-2020)

Attila was a gifted young singer, he lived in the 8. district of Budapest, a rapidly changing, once ghetto-like part of the city. He made it to talent shows of a major network and had regular appearances at events across town.

We knew each other from a nearby cult pub and community center called Golya, seen in the background in some of these images. I used to take pro bono photos for him as he came from a financially stricken family and was badly in need of portraits ahead of a major TV show.

Attila welcomed the changes in his neighborhood thinking that his left-behind community would be able to stay there. He admired the new glass buildings, he envisioned cafes where he would have his pictures exhibited as a well-known singer.

He climbed up to this little island with a single tree, that once stood in the backyard of buildings 100 meters to his home. He posed there and suddenly started throwing stones towards his very own block of flats.

He hoped to ride the wave of fame of the TV publicity, though dropping out of the show at an early stage. The rumors were that his social media following was not presentable enough.

The next time he entered national attention was his tragic car accident: he drove without a license double the speed limit through red lights onto a lamp post.

1. März 2020

Self Portrait at a Yoga Aktuell Shoot

This is a quick snapshot kind of self-portrait at a Yoga Aktuell photoshoot back in September 2019.

Chiemsee, Germany

15. Januar 2020

Self Portrait

Sept. 2005, Budapest, Hungary

Yes, that was real grass covering the top floor of Tüzraktar, a 10´000 square meter atelier complex where I had my own studio.

12. Januar 2020

Non-motorist Perspectives 2006

This photo project was commissioned by the late writer, editor and photo historian Mihály Gera. One day he just called up and invited me to his private library. It was a great honour to work with him.
He came up with the idea to try and capture Budapest with the theme of traffic in the city.
I was at the time already a passionate cyclist and my critique about urban planning became more and more obvious as I was taking pictures for this upcoming book. And exactly that seemed to create a problem. What I did not know from the start that this book was meant to be published for the City Hall of Budapest so that they could use it in their protocol as a present to mayoral visits.
But there were suddenly bigger obstacles, too. I left Budapest to pursue further studies in London and my flat got nicked back in 2007: there it went all my equipment and my archive as well!
I was though fortunate enough to have had a colourful pillowcase, and a good friend who´d recognise it on the sidewalk close to Brick Lane. Apparently, burglars like to stuff their plunder in the bedding, in order to grab as much as they can. Once out of the property, they can sort out the items they really need.
This is how I recovered at least these preview pictures!

2006, Budapest, Hungary

10. Februar 2018

Diploma in Photoshop

This 2-month online course was my update to the latest tools of photo editing. The newly released content-aware functions I liked the most. Also, the frequency separation method I learnt here makes beauty retouching much quicker for me. It became my go-to option for toning down wrinkles on a headshot.

PS: In 2018 I completed the Advanced Diploma in Photoshop as well.