Peter was born in 1965 in Pruem/Bitburg, Germany, and started working with a camera on his 7th Birthday. In 2018 he left BearingPoint to follow his passion – The photography of people. His Studios are in Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany but he travels across the world for his jobs and his Workshops – teaching Portrait Photography.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
Born in a small German town close to the border to Belgium and Luxembourg at the age of 7 I was taught photography by my father with a Voigtlaender Vito B and a Leica M4. We also had a darkroom where he showed me everything.
Until Today I constantly took pictures during my childhood, as a student - MBA – and even during my time as Partner of a global Business Consultancy. My subjects always have been human beings, but also landscapes during my trips across the world.
10 years ago at the age of 45, I met Greg Gorman www.gormanphotography.com on a workshop in Germany, and he encouraged me to push harder and develop my style. He became my mentor and friend and the hardest critic since.
Everything I know about light, working with the talent, and my black and white style is impacted by him. 2018 I left as a Partner the Consultancy to follow my passion and became a professional photographer. I have a studio in Frankfurt and Berlin but also work where my clients like me to.
2. How and when did you realize your passion for photography?
As said before my Dad planted the seed of Photography and fertilized it by taking me to exhibitions and showed me the work of Helmut Newton, Avedon, Stefan Moses, Gundlach, and others.
At the age of 13, I took my 1st picture of a friend (Picture #1) before that only family and it was the sparkle of my passion for people photography, and especially with women. During my studies, I worked with girlfriends and student colleagues, as a family father my kids and wife have been my subjects.
Starting with Greg I focused more on portraits and storytelling photography with models. I went on a journey lasting more than 5 years testing everything to find and develop my style – women, men, both together, Fine Art nude, fashion, color, black and white, etc.
At the end of the journey, I loved the idea of a “ready to go” picture in my camera. So in the last 4 years mostly all my pictures are out of camera jpegs – monochrome of my Nikons – only adjusted in Lightroom, by contrast, light, crop, etc. – but no photoshop.
Only client work or fashion editorial will be in color – if needed – and I have some retoucher who helps me with this work. B/W is always my work.
3. What are some tips you would like to share with amateur photographers?
There are some experiences I made during my journey so I believe the combination of those made the difference
1. ”It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart, and head.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
One of my most important pieces of advice is: know your camera by heart – use it manually after you know it - and trust your Autofocus – it's faster than your brain. I will explain this advice now.
a. During a people photography session your equipment should not distract you from the person in front of your camera. For me, the Talent in front of my camera is at this moment the most important person in my life. She has my full attention and I should be not distracted by always looking at my camera, adjust, fix or so.
b. Your Camera is a tool, like a hammer for a carpenter, therefore you should not treat it like a jewel, always afraid to destroy it or that It gets scratches, etc.
There are insurances to cover your Camera damage. Because you should not be distracted from the person in front of your camera, because you are focusing more on covering your gear than on the relationship with your talent.
c. Your Pictures are sharp or good if you trust your Camera and your Autofocus – I shot 98% on the continuous focus (Nikon) or AI Servo-AF (Canon) and I have a fixed focus point on the top middle. So I know always where my point is if I focus on one of the eyes.
So before one session, I take 1- pictures to see the light measures (manually ISO/APERTURE/SPEED) are right and then I shoot 50-100 pics in a row – model and I move normally – before I take the camera down and check my pics together with the model – believe it or not, if one picture is not sharp, its because I didn’t aim right.
In summary – don’t let your fear take away the attention of your talent, an intense relationship with the talent creates intense pictures
2. Talk to the Talent – The Talent doesn’t know what you want to achieve. Therefore I prepare a shoot with a mood board for the story, the looks, and the styling. This I share with the model upfront and during the shoot.
It helps to create a certain mental mood and helps to explain upfront what the attitude should be. During the shoot I speak constantly with the talent, guide and sheer, manage poses, expressions, head angles, views, etc. the movements… all with my camera up and shooting during this.
After the 1st round, I show to display the results, so the talent sees my angles, my crops, what I like, where we can improve… 2nd round starts always different and better, so It's like a movie creation 1-4 rounds rehearsal, you are the director, author and camera guy in one person.
3. Respect – Always create a warm but professional relationship with respect for each other and the relevant distance - which means no touching of the model, keep the normal distance and if you really want to adjust something ask the model if you can approach her and adjust it.
Since this is quite often a first and last time encounter, I strongly believe that being kind, polite, with natural emotion, and being respectful leads to a good relationship even after the shoot so that both would recommend the other to other people
For me, I behave like this would be my daughter/son and I treat every human being in the way I would treat my beloved ones. Treat everyone as you want to be treated. That’s the best filter and recommendation I can give.
4. What are the important skills one should have to be a successful photographer?
Besides the technical skills we talked about before, Empathy and the capability to be open and communicative towards people are vital skills for successful people photography. I can only speak about this. In people photography as in all other topics, you find 2 types of photographer – the technical and the emotional.
The 1st aims for the perfect technical result, sharpness, perfect light, no distractions, etc. and the 2nd looks for the emotion in the frame and accepts “the nonperfect picture” Many of Peter Lindbergh’s pictures are slightly out of focus, not straight, Blurred, etc. still the touch many peoples heart and soul.
STAY TRUE TO YOUR STYLE – if you know what you like to shoot stay on your path, don’t try to copy for the price of losing your soul. Many good photographers changed their style to the social media expected look to get more likes on Instagram or Facebook – and the increase of likes told them they have been on the right track.
But in the end, they are not visible in the masses, because everyone does. Create your own style people will recognize you – even if it's a hard and stone road – stay on it, if your quality is good and people like your style they will start following you.
I know what I am talking about – 5 years ago I started Instagram but no one wanted to see my B/W pics… frustrating but with the help of my friends I stayed on the road until today.
Find out who you are – which type you are and focus on your style.
5. What are various opportunities available for aspiring photographers?
When I grew up there have been perhaps 5000 famous photographers worldwide who did all the jobs for magazines like “Life”, “National Geographic”, “Time”, commercials, billboards, etc.
Today are millions of people who are capable of providing good content for the limited costs of former productions.
So the opportunities are more than in the past for digital fashion magazines, online stores, agencies, lookbooks of the model. But most of the time not for making a living of it.
If you want to be a successful photographer able to live from it, you need beside lots of talent, inspiration to be different. LUCK, to find some decision-maker who loves what you do and allows you to do what you do.
Best examples today of the photographer who stepped out of the masses and are successful are e.g. Lachlan Bailey or Alessio Albi
6. Which are your favorite books and why?
· Ansel Adams: Ansel Adams in the National Parks: Photographs from America's Wild Places
He is the Master of Black and white, created the Grayscale which I try to include in all my frames. His way of paying attention to the print as the final frame inspires me until today
· Yousuf Karsh: In Search of Greatness: Reflections of Yousuf Karsh
He was a master of portraits in ambient light and/or continuous light sources. I learned a lot about light setting, use of continuous light in combination with black
· Helmut Newton: Big Nudes
Helmut was the master of strong women with even very masculine looks. He was able to get his models giving an expression not to look down on their naked body before you asked them for permission
· Peter Lindbergh: 10 women
Peter’s style of framing – not perfect, emotional, things in the frame, light, etc. – inspired me most and you find many things in my frames. His approach to the fashion industry and women in the industry is still my role model and part of each of my frames
· Greg Gorman: It's not about me
Greg is also a role model if it comes to Storytelling and dramatic lighting in Portraits as well as editorials. He is such an inspiration bringing Talents in their own context into the frame – Painter related to painting, actor related to one of his roles, etc. Always a surprising moment in his frames
Instagram ID - @peterulimax, @petermuellerphoto
Peter was born in 1965 in Pruem/Bitburg, Germany, and started working with a camera on his 7th Birthday – starting with a Voigtlaender Vito B and taught by his father everything including their own darkroom.
After his Master in Business/Administration, he worked for PwC Consulting and was a Partner at BearingPoint Consulting until 2018. In 2018 he left BearingPoint to follow his passion – The photography of people.
His Studios are in Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany but he travels across the world for his jobs and his Workshops – teaching Portrait Photography.
He was mostly influenced by Greg Gorman, the famous Photographer based in LA where he attended some workshops and coachings, as well as their friendship, which lasts now more than 10 years.
Besides Greg, Peter grew up with the work of Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh who’s the approach to Portrait Photography, especially for women, impacted him the most.
His aim is always to show women as strong, self-confident, and beautiful human beings. He is published in many magazines and newspapers worldwide
Interviewed By - Anushka Gagwari
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