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It's enough to see things the way they are
Photography was something that was common in my family. My father has a solid collection of slides capturing pretty much every single major church, cathedral or monastery all across Europe. Sometimes I’m surprised that he still finds one, that hasn’t been in his files yet.
My dear uncle Manfred was a musician and traveller who came around far and his slide shows would bring me to places I didn’t even know they exist. To me he my personal National Geographic. His talent and passion taught me that it’s not enough to just take a picture of maybe some exotic face. You need to connect for making an image vivid.
So when I started taking pictures with my mothers Rolleiflex at about the age of 6 years, I pretty soon experienced the frustration of getting back the prints of that wonderful violet sword lily – in black and white… THAT wasn’t what I wanted to show!?
This may have been the most important learning for me: it’s not the material you work on or camera you use that gives quality to a photograph. Whatever shown on the image has to contain a message.
From that time on I hardly was seen without a camera and I can’t be thankful enough that my mother supported me so much by paying material and lab checks … But my focus mostly was on the equipment (and man, I WAS equipped!). It’s certainly one part of the job to know about the wide range of technical/optical possibilities. But decades and many thousand pictures taken later I am back to basics: my travel gear shrunk (even when I’m afraid to leave something at home that I’ll be missing), and exactly this gives me the freedom to be present, to dive into what I am surrounded by – instead of missing a chance whilst changing lenses …