My workflow is unique. In a world where everyone always has a camera with them, it is important to me to create unique images. My motifs may not always appear extraordinary at first glance, but my workflow is - not only for my analogue works.
In the beginning there is always a place, a moment, an idea, a vision and above all a feeling. Only if everything is correct do I press the shutter button. The moment doesn't have to be perfect, but I have to feel like the right thing to do is to pull the trigger. I'm often on the go with a digital and an analogue camera, so I almost always have the right tools with me. I take my cameras to the most fascinating places and I don't shy away from any effort or effort to take a camera anywhere.
Animals - especially when it comes to animals, it is very important for me, how and where I photograph them. Although I have taken animal photos in zoos or botanical gardens in the past, in recent years I have become more concerned with animal welfare. Now, I only photograph animals in the wild and I try to not disturb them. Images in my portfolio or in the shop that come from animals in captivity will always be marked and the exact place of recording and animal husbandry will be declared. I have already taken a lot of effort to find and photograph wild animals, but here too it was and is important to me that I have always taken care not to influence the natural behavior or the habitat of the animals, even in the slightest.
If everything is correct and I pressed the shutter button, there are only 2 possibilities. If the photo is digital, then it ends up on my memory card for a while, it usually takes far too long until I get to load the pictures onto my computer. If I manage to do it, I load the images into Lightroom, never into Photoshop! I then simply edit my photos in Lightroom and refrain from retouching, AI or other digital changes to my photos. If I took the photo on film, the finished film ends up in a box and waits to be developed. Whether black and white or C41 (color), I develop all the films myself. I take photos on 35mm film and 120 film, so the development is always varied. Once the films are developed, I digitize the images with 20MP or even 80MP and then load them onto the computer. Even with the analogue photos, I refrain from retouching, Ai or anything else, grossly changing or editing my photos. But there are also films that I do not digitize in order to increase the uniqueness of the photos. In any case, all negatives end up in the negative archive, where they are protected and stored in an orderly manner for the future.
The pressure. Now the task is to create a fully printed or enlarged image from a negative or a digital file. I have two options for this as well. When I have a digitized negative or digital file, I choose a print media and print the work on my Canon Prograf-1000. This allows me to print on even the most professional materials. Whether canvas, professional photo paper or fine art paper, everything is possible up to a size of 40x120cm. By directly monitoring the process, I can always guarantee the highest quality. If a work is printed on canvas, I also build the wooden frame myself, always from high-quality Swiss wood.
When I have a negative, I go to the darkroom and decide there whether I want to go the complicated route of color enlargement or the simpler route of black and white enlargement.
