Photopia is germany's newest and most important imaging fair since the Photokina era ended in 2018. As a Photographer from Hamburg, the location of the Photopia fair is especially convenient for me but despite of that I have never visited the fair until this year, 2023. Somehow my work shedule didn't align with the past events and over time, more and more people would tell me to be a part of it. The German Street Photography Festival has also been held inside the Photopia so I missed that too last time. When we had our annual "Meet & Greet" event in Nürnberg this year, Marco Larousse (one of the Founders of GSPF) had asked me if I want to join the festival with a presentation. This was an Inivtation I gladly accepted and even though I was in the middle of an important and time intensive project for a new client, I managed to find the time to work on a presentation about a topic that is very important and personal to me.
Presentation: Leaving the City as a Street Photographer
In 2021 my wife and I moved to the countryside of lower saxony. We have bought our first house in 2020 but had to wait until we were allowed to move in. When the covid pandemic hit germany, we were also forced to leave our apartment because the owner needed it back. So we were living in a small rooftop floor in someone elses house for half a year until we were finally able to move into our house. In the meantime my japanese grandfather has passed away, who was always a mentor for as an artist. And if that plus moving and the pandemic wasn't enough stress, my wife also became pregnant right before we were kicked out. My presentation at Photopia and the GSPF was about this challenging time period and how I dealt with it as a Photographer. I also talked about the insights I gained as a Street Photographer who has moved out of the city and had to adapt to a new environment. The presentation was in german lamguage but I can do this presentation in english, if anyone reading this wants to invite me to speak somewhere :-)
THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!