JENRIKS24hphoetry

First female guest appearance in September 2007! We’re very happy that we could win Mareen Fischinger, one of Germany’s most famous photo bloggers. Read her interesting interview!

Who are you?

I am a young, female photographer and photodesigner from Düsseldorf, Germany who is also a nerd and hyperactive person all in one.

How did you get interested in photography?

When I was very young, my father had his own darkroom in our bathroom and he let me develop his shots with him. Later, I was very respectful of cameras and it took a couple of years until I got to know them and felt like I could use one.
At sixteen, I got my first SLR and it turned out my photos were better composed than the usual snapshots people take.

Are you somehow a trained photographer or rather an autodidact?

The first years were more about the composition, the emotion etc. and later, the technical aspects became more and more interesting to me, until I soon understood the causalities of photography and how to use them to my advantage.
FH Düsseldorf’s (my design school) photo department sometimes hit back at me, they felt or feel like I am not doing things their way, a.k.a. the right way – which is kind of interesting to me and gives me motivation to carry on with my own thing.

Analog or digital?

Digital is the daily thing, the fast, the clean and the convenient way for everyone.
Analog is like vinyl. I like being reminiscent of good old photography and sometimes do take personal photos with a medium format camera.

Black and white or color?

Mostly color, for commercial reasons. But sometimes scenes just require to be monochromatic, they scream for contrast only and then they can have it.

3 photographers you adore.

I have seen great work, but I cannot come down to certain names here. I admire the ones who have found their thing and do not get annoyed with it, even after years of doing the same kind of photography. But only for that reason, diversity is not such a bad thing either.

What would be the motive of your dreams?

Every now and then, there is a new one and I eventually shoot it. In my head, there are a couple of ideas to be completed, but I cannot think of the one ultra-complicated you are asking for right now.

What inspires you the most when you are taking photos?

In a perfect photo shoot, the state comes where I just sway through the scene and blindy do a composition, I almost do not even have to look through the lens. That rush happens when everything fits perfectly, the sorrounding and light, the model, mood and expression and the connection between us all.

Do you have a special ambition with your photography?

I like to convey the world the way I wish it was: And it is! – In little moments to catch, you can see the beauty of things and how perfect they are.
Each image is like a puzzle that comes together for one second and then falls apart again. I want to capture that one moment.

Mareen, thank you very much for answering our questions! We are very happy to have you here as our eighth guest photographer!

Thank you for having me. By the way: My photoblog is at www.mareenfischinger.com