Reportages about your craft, by a craftsman

As a trained carpenter and photographer, I have specialised in photographic reports in the field of traditions, culinary and handicraft. All photographs are taken without “preparation”, and I will accompany you during your work.

Passionate coffee drinker, cook and enjoy the regional cuisine and sweet cakes, I like to hike in nature, learn to dance and listen to records, like Pink Floyd.

In my youth – already at the age of 13 – I started taking photographs. When I was about 18, I joined the Dornbirn photo club, where I had the opportunity to participate successfully in international photo competitions.

My first camera was a beautiful but very heavy Minolta viewfinder camera with a fixed focal length, which I was allowed to borrow from home. I experimented with it for about 2 years and learned a lot about proper exposure. I photographed everything – landscape, nature, friends.

In 2018, I met the course instructor and photographer Rene Bakel in a one-week photo workshop in Tuscany. Rene gave me many valuable tips for reportage and portrait photography, as well as for dealing with “people in front of the camera”.

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As a trained carpenter with a passion for handcrafted objects, it is my goal to make old crafts and traditional mores visible to others through photography. To make them visible means to show the creation of the products and works of art from the raw material to the final art piece ready for sale.

For the reportage, the available light, such as daylight and room light, has priority. Only in exceptional situations are two remote-controlled flashes used to brighten up objects or portrait photos.

Before I take photos, I have the employees introduce themselves to me and show me their workplace to feel the company’s atmosphere. Only then does the process of photography begin.

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All photographs are taken with a lot of patience during working hours, and without any preparation, so the pictures remain authentic and honest. I would also like to thank the staff who help me to create great photographs through their hard work.

The resulting photographs are distributed by me and two picture agencies, such as ImagoImages in Germany and APA-PictureDesk in Austria.

I often get inspiration and ideas from a holiday and enquiries in the locality, as well as from networking with the craftspeople I have photographed so far.

I am happy to find many new craftsmen and to be able to photograph them and thus contribute to the preservation of this art.

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Camera set:
Fuji X-T3, Fuji X-H1, XF16 mm F1.4, XF23 mm F1.4, XF56 mm F1.2, XF90mm F2 and Godox flash units.

Advantages:
Small setup of camera and lenses, a quiet shutter, longer handheld shutter speeds possible, overall lightweight of the system.

Disadvantages:
In the strong sun, the viewfinder is not always well visible. Otherwise, no other disadvantages until now.

My favourite lens is the Fuji XF16mm F1.4. With it, I can show the width of a workshop room and also the products in the close-up range. Not to mention the excellent sharpness!

I shoot all images in RAW and JPG for backup. These images are brought in with PhotoMechanic then processed and output with Capture One 21.

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My favourite craft:
Actually all businesses! Spontaneously I can think of one of the last companies photographed was “Jarosinski & Vaugoin” – silver cutlery, which is still made entirely by hand. And from my homeland Vorarlberg – a multi-part series of the “Juppen” production – the traditional Bregenzerwald costume, the very elaborate production of individual parts of the costume in many work steps, such as the Juppe, the headdress, the decorative ribbons and many other small parts.

Or the first photographed handicraft report – “Blaudruck Koo” – the handicraft production of elaborately printed fabrics dyed with indigo in Burgenland.

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