E S C A P E   I N T O   N A T U R E

A short film in collaboration with Sony

In ocotober 2020, filmmakers from munich (www.munipalfilm.de) approached me with the idea to document my photographic process in a form of a portrait film. The idea was to create something beautiful for our portfolio that showcases our creative skills and visiual language. We were both in the middle of other projects but decided we should still give it a go and not let this opportunity slip. Munipal Film pitched this idea to Sony Germany and they agreed to support our project by providing us with their newest A7s III camera and lenses. As we were in need for a light yet professional run and gun set up, this collaboration was a perfect match. The last thing we needed to figure out was the story. How can you tell a story when you only have one day of production? Is it even possible? The thing with good stories is that they don't often come to you by chance (although sometimes they do). We knew we can't make something groundbreaking and thought- provoking in a short period of time. So we came up with the idea of the "Escape". Escape from our busy citylifes. Escape from a pandemic that has obliterated our minds the past few month. How can we escape and find new perspectives? How does the pandemic affect rural areas where "social distancing" is not an issue? These were the questions that we asked ourselves and it became clear to us that we should try to capture our version of the "Escape" into nature.

We started the day at 5AM in the morning and drove down from munich into the german alps. Our first stop was the Kochelsee lake and we met a fisherman that was kind enough to let us interview him and watch him do his work. What we didn't know was that the fishing season had already ended and almost everyone who lives in the german alps has gone into a winter break. That was rather unfortunate as we also had plans to visit a cheese maker and mountain guardian that day. But we were grateful for the opportunity to meet this friendly fisherman and he let us film and photograph him.

(Click on the arrows to see more photos. Full screen available)

After spending the hole morning with the fisherman, we decided to head out to some other lakes and places to film for our short film (Places we visited: Walchensee, Sylvenstein-Stausee, Leutsch-Klamm, Isar-Tal). Here are some photographs & film stills from the beautiful landscapes we encountered.

After we collected a lot of beautiful footage for our film we had to decide on the last destination. We decided that it would be appropriate to end the day on the top of a mountain.  This was a particular interesting experience as the winter season was about to start and the hopes for any visitors from outside were crushed by the ongoing pandemic. What we found was an almost ghost town appearance. We were definitely not the first people to climb up the mountain that day but time has definitely stopped here. And that is how our Trip ended. Have we learned anything from this trip? Is life different on the land than in the city? Yes and no. The people we encountered during this trip seemed to have a relatively relaxed outlook on the situation. The feeling of uncertainty is there but as long as they have enough to provide for themselves they seem to be living a quiet life without too much concern for the future. Nature finds its course and so does humanity. Personally I was hoping for a reboot of my mind and creativity and I certanly got that from this trip. Sometime all we need to reset our minds is a little escape.


Films & Behind the Scenes

Big thank you to Sony Germany for supporting us with the video gear!
Video credit: MUNIPAL Film (www.munipal-film.de)