Erik and Jens are two young photographers from Germany. Their photographs are echoes of urban life with some excursions in abstract and landscape photography, i’m attracted by these good, simple photos and looking deep into them you can always find something new and fresh. Maybe their age helps this kind of naive way of looking to the world through a camera lens but i like to think that this is just a result of good lightning, strong composition and a keen eye to find an interesting subject. In my opinion these two photographers deserve our close attention, their work is already a promise of great things to come. To succeed they need to focus and work hard but now they have the will and the talent to launch a successful career, as amateurs or professionals.
How did you start taking photographs and why?
Erik: The first time I intentionally took pictures with an artistic motivation was in 2000. My dad an early Leica digital camera which I could use. I have always been liking just watching my surroundings and recognizing beautiful details. As there are manifold things to discover I wanted to help my brain to remember those with the help of the camera.
Jens: The first time I consciously took some pictures was in 1999, in school for my art class. Since then I borrowed my fathers’ canon AE-1 at times.
In your opinion, what makes a good photo?
In our opinion, technique is obsolete to enthuse people when presenting your photos. A creative idea and the motivation to do something very unusual is the precondition for interesting results. We are both no professionally trained photographers and thus do not know much about “perfect” compositions, lightings, colours or studio setups. Most important is to do photography with fun and relaxation. You will easily develop many ideas.
What makes you want to capture a photo? What do you have to see in a subject to make you release the shutter?
Erik: Symmetry. Whenever I see something symmetric and I have my camera with me, I take the shot.
Jens: Humans. I love candid portraits of people in the streets.
Do you have some kind of routine to make pictures for your photoblog or do you just let it happen and see where it takes you?
We just let it flow. It’s a hobby and the quality varies a lot. So the only routine is that we alternate every other day. Variety is our biggest aim.
At the end of a session, how do you choose the photos that are worth to be shown on the front page of JENRIKS24hphoetry?
Sometimes we run out of new output completely. These are hard days with searching in our archives. It’s a bit of a shame to show pictures that are not of our recent standard. Fortunately these days are quite seldom. We regularly go out for a session once a week. But as we don’t live in the same city anymore, we both have to do it on our own in most cases, which is a pity because we push each other to more creativity when doing it together.
Name a few photographers that inspired you and your work and why they inspired you.
Erik: To be honest I don`t have idols among photographers, but I get lot of inspirations by renown architects. My most popular one is Frank O. Gehry.
Jens: Jaume Blassi (portrait), Ken Ohara (portrait).
Analog or digital?
We use cameras of both types frequently, but think that both techniques have their advantages and disadvantages.
Analog pictures carry more personality of the photographer and their charm lies in the lack of sharpness, perfect white-balance, dust and other “faults”.
Digital photography simplifies workflows and reasonably reduces costs. Improvements of your skills can be developed faster with a digital camera, because you can always instantly review your results and progresses.
How did digital technology change the way we look at photography as art?
The hazard of digital photography is that everybody pollutes the world with his output. Of course art always is receipted subjectively, but the more you can discover the less you take your time for every piece of art. The information overkill is a serious problem for our society.
Wealthy © Erik Hehrmann
Tekken 7 © Jens Herrmann
gostei!
São um duo fantástico, simpáticos e muito jovens, o que lhes augura um bom futuro.
Mario: A big official THANK YOU for this interview! We’re very happy that you asked. All the best for your project here. You’d absolutely deserve a broad audience with your great work in discovering talented photographers and interviewing them!!!
Erik: a big thank you to you and to Jens, your work is a inspiration to us all. I’m very happy that you accepted my invitation and it was a pleasure to ear what you have to say about photography and your work.
Thank you also for the comment about this blog, it is not easy to keep the blog running everyday (at least that’s what i try to do) and after these 8 months i have to say that it’s not as easy as it seems. But i have discovered great photographers, talked with some of them and it’s a learning experience that has to be lived in order to understand it. And you are part of that experience!
I wish all the best to JENRIKS24hphoetry and to you both. Keep in touch.
Mario,
thank you very much for the interview! It was a pleausure for me to answer your questions. I appreciate your work on this site very much, it is always worth a visit.
Kind Regards
Jens
Jens, thanks for your kind comment. Your words about this blog are an inspiration to write more and to try harder! Thank you very much to both of you. As i said to Erik, keep in touch.