About me

I am a photographer based in Graz, Austria, Europe. Runaway that I was, I just wanted to get away from the elite boarding school. After the first fights in a new school class I felt better and very grounded. In only a few fights did I win, I lost most of them, but I had made friends. My parents had given me a solid education. Bless you, that was a perfect tool - if needed, I could use it. I wanted to go out and left my home, which had already changed several times before I was ten years old anyway. I dropped out of my physics and economics studies and left the world I knew. The rest fit into a backpack and life washed me and my friend Walter up in South America - at the mouth of the Amazon. I estimated a 50/50 chance of surviving and returning, but in the end, there were fewer snakes than expected. Exploring the Amazon - why? Well, as far as I knew, no one had navigated the entire river before. It was just there, calling us with its adventures, and we were ready to go. - I was 23 years old.

Ten months later, my diaries were full of the stories I wish I had read before I left. Jungle, animals, rapids, natives, corruption, drugs, fear, euphoria, exhaustion, illness, survival - close to death but so alive! Dirty clothes and a torn backpack were my only possessions upon return, but several thousand slides and hundreds of stories in my journals kept the wonders I had experienced from being forgotten in everyday life. Travel had led to change and a hunger for more adventure had grown. Three years later, it happened again. All the possessions I had acquired anew since my return were turned into money. A new door opened into a new adventure.

It was going east! - This time with Barbara. She had hung up her perfect career as an executive secretary, my 24-year-old gypsy girl.

We sank into the civil war of Sri Lanka and later into the depths of Asian cultures. A magician made us fly or die and we learned that it is easier to give than to take from the poorest. Our modest budget took us straight to the beating heart of Asia. Golden signs showed us the way to higher levels of the Himalayas and later reality in Burma. Opium, the black gold, glittered at the edge of the path to the hilltribes who lived hidden in the golden triangle. The people there delicately touched our skin and hair - they had never seen whites before. In Taman Negara, the green lung of Malaysia, the jungle had us again and finally we came to rest slowly for seven weeks on Chinese coral islands. These were stations on our way, just to name a few. After a year, two strangers returned to Europe, overloaded with treasures that life had given them. We had begun to go our way at the end. My life continued to be full of travel, wonder, adventure, and it continues to be exciting every day. Some may judge it less spectacular from their point of view, but from mine it was breathtaking.

Since you have read this far, you may be really interested in treasures. Go on, they are only one step away. Take a chance and go inside my photographs. But be careful, this is dangerous territory. You might encounter traps, illusions and temptations - but possibly also a hidden path to the beginning of a new adventure ...

For more than 20 years I was able to combine travel with my work as a manager in the transport telematics, chemical, textile and steel industries. Hundreds of business trips to all five continents led not only to a comfortable Lufthansa Senator status, but also to hundreds of business contacts. And business is always done between people. After low budget travel with my backpack, I was now staying in five star hotels, meeting business tycoons and government officials. While low-budget travel had given me a glimpse into the beating heart of a country, business access now gave me an under-the-hood look at the dynamic engine of booming economies. It was exciting to be a part of India's rise as a global industrial player, while the path to the country's development was not always for the best of its people. I gained insight into how Chinese might think, made friends in India, and became a valued partner from Dubai to Shanghai. The key was understanding the culture and social background of the people I met. I had begun to study their history, their religions and philosophy, and had learned the basics of some of their languages. What an international life and how exhausting it all was! My camera was always with me and it was very interesting to do industrial photography along with situation reports on emerging technologies and markets. More than 100,000 images in my archive document 30 years of travel, many changes in the world, but also a hidden paradise here and there.

I switched from taking to making photographs because that seemed more challenging. Digital photography offers quick and easy access to the results. Portraits are the supreme discipline of photography. They take us from mutable realities into the realm of personality, imagination and desire. Faces attract us because they always touch a side of our own personality. I had passed the master photographer's exam and started my work as a professional photographer. And whatever I capture with my camera, I do it with full confidence to find everywhere beauty behind it.

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