Go Crow
July 2024, Munich, Germany
Crows are punk, they sound rough and act like a gang. I’m fascinated by their look, and I tend to see them against an urban backdrop.
There is a black and white series in the making: every once in a while I go out and capture some images of them, mostly in the Olympic Park of Munich.
This photograph is demonstrably not the one I have in mind, though. I’m in for some 20´s style architecture images in the background, in the feel of Lewis Hine of New York, but with a focus on these birds.
This juxtaposition tells the story of a distinctively new species, a Corvus Urbanis maybe, that long inhabited a built environment and acquired an urban character different from their natural, now only close relatives.
I’m posting this picture above, as it will not make it to this new essay, but I love it nonetheless. It’s so studio-like and crisp. The morning sun acts as the main light but also reflects on the side of the BMW building opposite to provide the perfect backlight. I like this picturesque character to it, though it is not the clean metallic look I aim for.
Best explained I include an image below: it has those large bolts, kind of the timeless, or more like modern picture elements I would very much like to see in the background.

Furthermore, I imagine this could be an interesting direction for the series to go. See below:

i Wish
July 2024. Munich, Germany

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?
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.
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.
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.
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

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..)
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.
My First Tutor and My First Print
Federico Savini, Pratt Institute, New York, 2000

This is probably the first portrait photograph i made in all its phases of analog production. Federico Savini, our tutor at Pratt Institute in New York kicked off the Portrait Class by setting a continuous light and called us to take some pictures of him. I loved his classes: this hands-on approach. Once we developed the rolls and enlarged our own prints, I was pumped that he singled me out for this shot. He liked the stance of stepping back just a bit to include a wider story.
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
RadlKult Making-of
Juni 2017, München, Germany


photo credit: Kai Neunert
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.
This Job Changed my Career
It was an assignment the very day I got fired. I was told by the newly appointed picture editor that he had nothing against me but wanted to bring his team.
I was a freelancer at the time, but Magyar Hirlap, a political daily in Budapest gave me daily assignments, so it was indeed my workplace.
I was just digesting the shock at the publisher´s office as a job came to the photo desk. No-one could take it for some reason, so I was asked by the very editor to do it for that last time.
It was about the once large scale industrial site on the island of Csepel in Budapest. Long vanished socialist industry, once flagship carmaking halls, uncertain future.
I could very much sympathise with that handful of workers I met there. I chose to alter the white balance of my camera to make these warm tones, creating a sepia look, supporting feelings of nostalgy and melancholy.
And that was a hit. At the time in 2004 no-one, I knew worked with raw images. We shot jpg. Meaning that one could not tweak the colour balance that easy afterwards in post-production. I made that on the spot as if I still used film. Dialling up meant, that I could also achieve a very cold look, blue lights pouring through those large windows. It was a great contrast to the sepia past, portraying the harsh realities awaiting.
Delivering this little essay earned me the front page and a seat at the photo desk!
Though later I was told that the previous editor, Tamás Szigeti came to my rescue and spoke of me highly behind the scenes. I´m still grateful for his inspiration and guidance.
(the resolution and small size of these images reflect on the internet of the mid-2000s, as they were featured on my website at the time)
2004, Csepel, Budapest, Hungary
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
Teamlove

Foto: Daniella Hehmann
This is how one looks if they are cold on the set and the only one having some extra clothes is the stylist from Berlin!
Starnberger See,
Bayern, Germany
August 2018