When you look at a city, you see structure, people, surroundings, construction, change and chaos. In a city, nothing is permanent. It’s a theatre of life played out on pavement. Introducing a camera into this environment turns everyday situations into collaborators. Being in the street and walking around with a camera means being free. It is accident and coincidence, drama, movement. Above all, it’s imagination.
Before analysis comes impulse: an interesting framing, an idea of how to experience surroundings. If you go out and try to look for a photo composition, you’ll always find something. A something that is probably interpreted afterwards as interesting. A shadow line on the stairs framed by the U-Bahn sign at Alexanderplatz. The opposite is a moment strongly felt yet unexplainable in terms of composition. A little spark that prompts a click.
A situation must be present and a choice must be made. It’s hard to catch the photograph even if the motive is right in front of the lens. It’s not always possible to shoot the moment that because it flies by too quick. The point is to shoot things that are felt rather than seen. Picasso explained. good painting must be poetry above all else and not a slice of life cut off at the wall, frozen and reduced to two dimensions. It’s important to not only take but add something to the world.
In terms of the product, there is no good or bad as long as it is fun. Excitement about the act of shooting is more worth than a “good photo.“ People in the industry are strict and critical but if photography does nothing but produce good or bad taste, it has failed. The art of photography must be free of logic, so that the viewer can interpret it using his own logic and the image can take shape individually.
A photo needs to be alive and filled with life.
