born in germany, spend my youth in frankfurt/main, started taking pictures on family vacations in switzerland at the age of 11. joined the fire department, graduated, objected military service, helped the red cross.
worked as a lighting technician at the frankfurt theater schauspielhaus, with some of the greatest talent of the german theater, had a great time.
studied at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt.
getting into professional photography by assisting henner prefi, old school still life photographer and one of the best photography professors in germany. in the european tradition of mentor, apprentice.
after a couple of years, left to assist for bernd mayer, an outstanding, modern, still life photographer.
moved to paris, got a job at pin up studios. worked with a lot of the greatest photographers, editors, art directors, models, hair and make up artists. shooting fashion. while working with karl lagerfeld, i met my wife and followed her to new york.
worked with annie leibovitz as her first assistant.
left annie’s very inspirational, nothing is impossible attitude. started out on my own, working for various us and international publications and advertising agencies. shooting mostly in new york, the us and europe. sometimes even in asia or africa.
switched my photographical approach from film to digital. a greener and more environmentally friendly production. less lighting, smaller crews, resulting in smaller production footprints and cost. no more chemicals to develop film and prints. renewable energy at the office, full digital delivery of final image files without messengers, paper prints, cost and all the time and distance constrains of the last century.
love to do my research, to know about people’s stories, meet them and find an appropriate way to portray them, so they actually recognize themselves in the picture and give the audience, who hasn’t had the chance of meeting the portrayed, a sense of their personality, character and history.
and now the whole thing in german and french… mark