My father's Sri Lankan, my mother German, they met in England, and the rest of my relatives live all over the globe. So I suppose it could be said that my Wanderlust was already hard-wired into my genes.
I bought my first own camera, a Voigtländer Automatic, to take along on a school trip the year before my school-leaving exam. It accompanied me on my first trip to the U.S.,
a Eurail-tour and also for a one year stint in London. It was there
that the "photo-bug" really caught hold of me. On my return,
however, I was not able to get an apprenticeship as a photographer and
so I started working for a "well-known German airline" instead.
In the next few years I was very fortunate to be able to travel to all
continents except S-America and Antarctica, accompanied by my first real
mirror-reflex camera, a venerable Minolta
XRT 303. It was eventually substituted by my still much-beloved working-horse,
the Minolta X-700.
The slides from my trips always received much praise, which eventually strengthened
my wish to do something with this talent.
In 1992 the fates worked in my favour: Lufthansa
offered me a prolonged unpaid leave of absence, my U.S. relatives (thank
you, Beate and Michael!) a place to stay and the Montclair
State University in New Jersey a place to study.
Four years of Fine Arts, major: photography, minor: graphic design. A
degree as Bachelor of Fine Arts, Summa Cum Laude. A series of events led
to the fact that I am not a full-time paparazza, "serious" photographer,
or graphic designer but photogrophy remains my most passionate hobby.
By now a Nikon N90s has
joined my string of cameras. And since I am still an active globe-trotter
my travel-slides keep mounting up and my bathroom gets converted into
a darkroom in regular intervals.
My favourite subject matters (as represented on this site) are landscapes/architecture,
people, and abstracts. I like clear, geometric lines and strong contrasts
of shape, colour, and/or structure.
