How it all began:
It sounds absurd, but the bottom line is that Corona, or rather the first Lockdown, helped me get started with so-called fine art photography. The reason for this is relatively simple: during the lockdown, I didn’t have a single assignment as a photographer. Nevertheless, I wanted to occupy myself with photography or to educate myself further. In plain language: Instead of Netflix, Photoshop should give me square eyes during the lockdown…
I had the plan to push fine art photography even before the lockdown. That’s why I spent the last two weeks, before you shouldn’t go out the door anymore, wandering around Berlin and photographing all the buildings. My thought: I need a large supply of images to keep me entertained during lockdown. In the past I had tried to take fine art photos here and there. However, I never had the time to familiarize myself comprehensively with this new discipline.
Why actually Fine Art Photography ?
I have long been fascinated with fine art photos. The atmosphere, the apparent weightlessness and reduction to the essential in some pictures had a great attraction for me. I found looking at fine art photos somehow decelerating.
My dream was that one day I could create such works of art myself. At some point, this dream or wishful thinking became an obsession that never let go of me. The lockdown was kind of the perfect chance for me to learn all this.
As for the term, you can find some confusing definitions under “fine art photography.” My personal definition: Everything is allowed to realize one’s own artistic vision.
Art is art – there is no good or bad. More of a “like it” or “don’t like it” – and that’s the beauty of it. For me personally, developing my photos is a meditative process where I can completely let go. I follow my vision without pressure and enjoy the process every time. By the way, this also applies to fine art photography. Taking pictures is much more deliberate. Sometimes the shutter speeds are 3 – 5 minutes, and you are virtually forced to spend more time on the environment. This has a therapeutic character – especially in our fast-paced world.
Fine Art Bootcamp
Fine art photography is incredibly rich in content. By this I mean not only the completed artwork, but the process for creating the images. The photography is (in most cases) different compared to the other real estate photography I do for immobilienfotografen-berlin. Developing fine art photos is a whole new universe to grasp and implement. But – as I said – because of Corona and the lockdown I suddenly had a lot of time. Likewise, my aspiration was that after the lockdown I could look back and say, “Somehow the lockdown did something for me.” In the meantime, almost a year has passed, and I look back on an extremely instructive time. I sometimes worked into the wee hours of the morning editing images, testing new features in Photoshop, and developing workflows to achieve high-quality results.
I don’t want to go into all the technical details of fine art photography here, but rather focus on my images and the stories behind them. However, I would like to mention that I now teach Fine Art Photography. So if you are interested in a course with me, you can register HERE. As I said – here are a few pictures (and more posts in the future where I will show my fine art pictures and tell a few stories behind them). You can find a collection of my Fine Art photos HERE on this page or HERE on my Fine Art – Instagram profile.
Ba-Bäääm……the lockdown is coming
As already mentioned above: I wanted to have enough usable pictures in the can shortly before the first lockdown, so that I can use this actually dumb time productively. I already had a few landmarks in mind, which were: Shell Haus, Tempodrom and Siegessäule in Berlin.
Here I must briefly note the following: By searching for suitable fine art photo – motifs in and around Berlin, I got to know Berlin much better. It took me to areas I hadn’t been to before, and at the same time, it made my pedometer happy, since I always try to do most of my excursions on foot.
The Shell House
The Shell house is a timeless beauty (in my eyes) because of its classic Bauhaus style. The building has many different faces and – depending on the perspective – can look completely different.
Standing at the east end of the house and looking west, the Shell House looks like separate blocks. Somehow this also has something of “disorderly organ pipes” …but sexy !!!
When I take fine art photos, I look at the building – if possible – from all sides. Shell House is a good example of why this is worthwhile. By the way, Google Street View is your best friend when it comes to preparing a fine art shoot. Often you can spot attractive angles from the comfort of your sofa at home, which you then need to capture.
A completely different picture is presented if you look at the facade at a certain angle (and edit the image accordingly). Like waves, the elements of the house arch and look like a dynamic, soft mass in the flow. Not rigid at all, but rather feather-light and playful. At least, that’s how it looks to me. My main focus when editing this image was – as you can easily see – to emphasize the dynamics and the playful character. Already here you can see in comparison to the upper picture that this building has many different faces
And now comes my favorite photo of the shoot from Shell Haus. The view from below along the facade towards the sky reminds me of the title “Stairway To Heaven”…
From this angle, you can see all the elegance of the waveforms, which consistently rise like steps. Window bands and facade cover look like woven textiles. In contrast to the house, I have deliberately chosen the sky or the clouds blurred and diffuse.
Instead of losing many words about it now: Look at it yourself and make your own picture.
So, that was my first post about my fine art photography. I hope you enjoyed the post and much more I hope that you like my fine art images or I have aroused your interest. The next article will follow soon – this one will be about the Tempodrom Berlin.
Until then – stay healthy and kick Corona in the butt!
Your Tobi