INTERVIEW WITH WOLF ADEMEIT
Splash
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself
At the moment I am 63 years old and live in the Ruhr area in Duisburg, Germany. I started photography in my youth. Photography has always been an important part of my life. For many years I worked independently in the field of graphic design and reproduction. Meanwhile, I work independently as a photographer. Animal photography has become an integral part of my work, though I’ve just come by accident.
2. What does photography mean to you?
Photography is a very effective way of communicating. A picture is worth a thousand words. This may be a bit flat and worn, but it’s just right. Some images are able to tell entire stories that we can capture at a glance. That’s the art of photographing.
3. Was there anything specific that you can remember that made you want to become a photographer?
I was always very interested in technology. Painting and drawing have been my great hobby for many years. The photography unites technique and picture. Maybe that’s why photography has become my focal point today.
Cold eyes
4. What Inspires you?
Fifteen years ago, I would have answered that question with famous names in art and photography. Today, we live with a flood of digital images that breaks over us every day. I think those many pictures are my biggest inspiration.
5. What makes the good picture stand out from the average?
This question is difficult to answer. With the thousands of photos, you see everywhere today, it’s important to be different from the others. The technical and artistic aspect is often secondary. What people perceive as beautiful is subject to mathematical rules that should always be observed.
6. Among your works, which one is your favourite? Why?
Of course, I also have pictures that are particularly close to my heart. But these are more private moments that are linked to memories. My private favourites are often not identical to the better-known ones.
Bullheads
7. What kind of gear do you use?
The question of technology is asked again and again. I do not consider her that important. My first pictures for the ANIMALS series I photographed with a Sony Alpha 100 and a Sigma 50-500 ZOOM. I still use the lens, the cameras have always been adapted to the current technical standards. At the moment I am using a Sony A77 II with the Sigma 50-500 lens.
8. What was your very first camera?
My first camera was a Praktica with which I photographed almost exclusively black and white for many years.
9. Did you go to school to study photography?
No, I did not attend a school for photography. Also, I’m not sure if at the time I started being interested in photography, there was something like that at all. During my apprenticeship as a lithographer, however, I came into contact with professional photographers and found a very good mentor.
10. How long have you been a photographer?
I take pictures since my youth. The conscious photography I have been doing since my training in lithography.
Power and Elegance
11. How much do you research your subjects before photographing them?
You can not instruct animals like humans, they are action-photography that you can not plan. You can just wait until a situation arises and take pictures.
12. Could you please tell us something about your technique and creating process?
As an analogue black and white photographer, the negative is only the first step to the finished picture. For me, the digital negative is just the first step to the finished picture. I edit or develop it into the image that I imagine. Perhaps the most important difference to many other photographers is that I photograph the images of the ANIMALS series specifically for this kind of presentation.
13. What do you do in your life besides photography?
Photography and design are my main interests. I have turned my hobby into a profession.
Roaring Lion
14. Why your work is special?
When I published the first pictures of the ANIMALS series in 2007, the style was brand new. Until then, animal photography had been more concerned with the natural representation of animals in their habitats. For the last ten years, many photographers around the world have been inspired by my pictures and used my style for their own work. If you look for animal pictures on the Internet today, you will find a lot of photos that were photographed and edited in this style.
15. What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I am still working on the ANIMALS series, which now includes around 1,000 pictures
16. A funny moment that happened to you on one of the days when you were shooting?
Animal photography is very time-consuming. You have to wait and watch a long time before taking an interesting picture. Not much happens. The beautiful, funny moments, I had more in portrait or fashion shootings, when working with people.
17. Where can you see yourself and your photography in 10 years?
At the moment I am 63 years old. That’s why goals in 10 years are not that important.