There are subjects that have been photographed thousands of times.
For me, the point is not to show once more what a place looks like,
but how it feels when I connect it with my own imagination.
Stuttgart City Library is a strong piece of architecture,
but in a purely documentary image it becomes interchangeable for me.
It’s the kind of picture you look at for a moment and forget the next day.
For the wall, I am looking for something else:
an interpretation that still inspires years later.
So this is not a classic documentary photograph.
I take the idea of the architecture and push it further –
into a calmer, clearer, futuristic version that still remains believable.
A smartphone could document this space perfectly well.
So why do we walk in with high-end cameras and lenses
only to produce yet another “correct” documentation?
I deliberately photograph in a way that turns a real location into a personal world.
Many architectural images are clean and technically correct – and still interchangeable.
One has a bit more sharpness, another a bit less noise,
but in the end it’s essentially the same picture.
You recognize the building, but not the person, the photographer, the artist behind it.
That’s where such images lose their impact, especially if you want to live with them on your wall.
Do we really want to contribute the ten-thousandth version of the same scene?
Creating your own visual worlds is much more demanding.
There is no template, nothing to copy, no guaranteed formula.
All you have is your inner idea of the place, and everything has to build around that:
colors that work together, light that carries a certain mood,
and the question of what this image is supposed to express.
That’s also why such a style is hard to imitate –
there is no preset for it, only the artist’s handwriting.
It took me a long time to understand this.
For many years I held back my own signature because I thought
photography had to be “correct” first and foremost.
But that way of working makes many images age quickly.
Photography becomes truly interesting when you dare to think a subject further –
not just to document, but to interpret.
That is what interests me today:
revealing the potential of a place, not just its surface.
If this image encourages other photographers to repeat less
and show more of their own signature, it has done its job.
There are far more possibilities than “natural colors” or “black and white”.
Once you allow your inner version of a subject to flow into the picture,
you start creating images you genuinely want to keep for a long time.
Technical details
📷 Camera: Sony Alpha 7R V
🔭 Lens: Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM
📍 Handheld – tripods are not allowed at this location
🔍 Focal Length: 14 mm
🌞 Aperture: f/5.6
🌙 ISO: Auto
⏳ Exposure Bracketing (HDR-RAW): 5-frame series with 2.0 EV steps per image
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And if you notice a man from the future
in the glass door at the top —
don’t worry, that’s me. 😉
(At 100% zoom: unmistakably the Running Man.)
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Thank you. That is exactly what my photography is about.
I am less interested in presenting subjects in a purely documentary way, and much more interested in making moods, emotions, and inner images visible. The subject itself is often just a starting point — a means to create a personal world, an atmosphere, or a story.
At this point, I have even been told here in the forum that I should “go to therapy.” Remarks like that say far more about the person making them than about me. Anyone who resorts to personal attacks instead of discussing photography has already left the actual topic behind.
Of course, cameras keep getting slightly better: a bit less noise, a touch more sharpness. But honestly, that hardly matters to anyone who truly feels an image. I could just as well photograph with a 20-year-old DSLR. It would be less comfortable, yes — but the impact of the image would not change. Documentation, if needed, can be done with a smartphone.
Photography does not become better through new technology, but through clarity about why one photographs and what one wants to evoke in the viewer. I am writing this deliberately, knowing that many people here are reading quietly.
Is it a HDR image? Yes I see the HDR-RAW in the "specs". But I am olde
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