Photographer 写真家

Born 1990, grown up in the Austrian Alps surrounded by lakes and glaciers (picture to the right). This may help explaining an ongoing personal fascination for landscapes from a wide-angle, tracing seasonal colours, reflections, and landscape architecture around the world.

2007-2008: High school exchange to Tochigi pref., Japan

2010-2014: University of Vienna, Korean Studies and Japanese Studies

2012-2013: Undergraduate year abroad in Kyōto, Japan

2015-Present: Grad school at Kyoto University, Japan.

How I approach landscape photography in Japan?

Which aspects do ordinary people take undisputed as "traditions" and why?

A keyword that I think about again and again is that of "good weather." What's good weather? What's bad weather? Sunshine can make shooting a Japanese garden impossible, Rain, on the other hand, provides almost endless opportunities.

How do hegemonic concepts of "beauty" influence photographers in the age of social media?

I am not trying to depict the obvious "beauty" of a place. Living in Kyōto allows me to enjoy the luxury of being able to stroll around the city and its many temples and gardens as I please. This enables me to visit and shoot with a full mindset and some background information, looking beyond famous angles (定番) to find an angle that is an expression of the colours and mood that I was seeing and experiencing on that particular day of shooting. This is a constant process of re-discovery, of trial and error. And this is what makes photographing Kyōto such a rewarding motive.

How is the landscape architecture and the festivals we see "traditional"?

As a scholar with an education background in Japanese studies, influenced by my Profs. from Vienna and Kyōto, I started delving more into the history of the spaces I visit. Not reproducing the often nationalist, official history and myths that one finds in temple's and shrine's pamphlets, boards and websites, but a non-nationalist art and religious history inquiring more subjectively into where landscape designers, painters, craftsman and others got their inspriations from, and how notions of space and beauty changed over the course of the centuries. Not everything "traditional" we see dates back centuries. Rather, most traditions underwent a continous cycle of re-invention.

I consider myself an "amateur" photographer.

Considering that the word's etymology derives from the Latin word "amare", meaning "to love", I do not aim to become a "professional" who works for money, but rather persue photos as an enjoyable counterweight to my profession, which is largely desk- and archive-based scholarly research.

1990年、オーストリアの北アルプスの村で生まれる。

2007-2008年、高校留学で栃木県那須町へ

2010-2014年、ウィーン大学　東アジア研究所　日本学・韓国学専攻

2012-2013年、学部留学で京都へ

2015-現在　　、京都の大学大学院文学研究科　現代史専修

　　　　　　　　　　京都を中心の写真活動

写真家としての主な関心

出身地との関連性もあり、四季折々の風景、特に「水」・「伝統建築」と「風景建築」を中心に撮影しています。

「伝統」とは何かを問います。

綺麗だから場所を訪れるのではなく、場所一つ一つの歴史と向き合い、特に近現代の変化を批判的に問い直す。そして、その歴史を国史の狭い視野で見ることを拒否します。

「日本の美意識」とは何かを考えます。

古来より大陸・半島との相互関係にありながら常に変遷していき、近代に入ってからは欧米諸国とも関わりながらさらに変化してきたことを意識して、庭園・寺院・神社・祭などの空間や色の変化を追求していきます。

　現在の目の前に見る神社やお寺は一目で「古く」見えるが、その数百年の歴史の間に如何なる変化があったかを、国史・公史を超えて考えていきながら京都を散策・撮影しています。

「四季」のみではなく、「二十四節気」を意識して出かけます。

「いい天気とは何か」を問い直します。

「晴れた」からと言ってではなく、どの天気も「良い」出会いがあると思い、活動しています。

自分を「アマチュア」（素人）として認識して、活動します。

お金のために働く「プロ」（玄人）と違い、ラテン語由来の「アマチュア」とは「好き」という意味であり、まさに写真撮影が好きだから活動します。そのおかげで、比較的自由に写真活動できます。

My Gear

Body: Nikon D780 (since 2021), Nikon D750 (2016-21), Nikon D7100 (2014-16), Nikon D7000 (2012-14), Nikon D40 (2007-12).

Lenses: mainly Nikkor 20mm f/1.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 VR, 70-200mm f/4, 85mm f/1.8; from time to time 35mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4.

newest addition: Nikkor 14-24mm f/1.8, Sigma ART 35mm f/1.4, switch to 24-70mm VR

Filters: LEE Filters 100 (Grad ND soft 0.3; 0.6; 0.9; and medium 0.6) + LEE 100 C-PL; various C-PL filters during Momiji season

Tripod: when possible, I use it, but mostly forbidden in temples/shrines around Kyoto.