INTERVIEW WITH JORG BECKER

When and how do you start to create?

Inspired by the many art books of my father, I started painting and drawing at the age of 10 years. Architecture and art fascinated me and I quickly realized that these media would influence my life. At the age of 16, I discovered the pictures of Doisneau, Brassai, Ronis, Hamilton, Sieff and other famous photographers. I bought a Minox and tried to imitate the photos of these artists. But the results were sobering. I started painting when I was 18.

Do you went to an art school or self-taught?

Beautiful arts, especially photography can be studied, but that does not make the artist in a person. The true artist is already a creative person from his birth. I have not completed art studies, my studies was life, experience and above all my intuition. I am a how to call it today, "image thinker". 

I chose architecture as a source of money. I pursue the art of photography completely free of financial and social dependencies without compulsion, but professionally. So not to earn money or to find recognition, but because it is in me and enriches my life.

How do you learn and work your skill?

After the first failed beginnings, I studied photography, especially the black white photography after Ansel Adams.
Over the years, I bought almost all good photographic volumes available in the 80s and 90s in the market. There was also very good photography magazines that were very informative at the time.I bought a mirror reflex camera and a photorabor and learned photos to record and develop.
Exposure, focal length, viewing angle, moment, removal, film sensitivity, lighting conditions, a variety of factors that make up a photo.
A completely different than the "click-and-finished world" of amateur photography did me. I always had my camera. See a motif, develop a picture in mind, realize with the camera and edit in the darkroom. And more and more I had the good results.

What do you like in this art, your motivation?

In contrast to painting, with photography, I have a much larger way to capture my view of things, experiences, visions, moments and moments and show my fellow human beings. I like the painting very much, I started my artistic career, but I confess, I do not have the patience, hours, - days, and weeks to work on a picture. I also use a lot of time for my photo shoots, usually I can say, per picture 5 hours of work, but still, this is no comparison to completion, for example, an oil image.

I want to tell, point out shows. I want to show people that there are other perspectives. Today, most people sit in front of their TV or monitor and become by advertising, news or unrealistic films
Who takes nature, as an example, really true?

What are your favourite subject(s)?

Like many photographers, I started landscape photography, but also began at the same time with the nude and erotic photography which of course made me great fun, not least because I had the opportunity to take a very beautiful girl to photograph. But also because I had really good results right away. Responsible was my infatuation.
Due to the many trips, the street photography became a big part of my photography. And that's really a highly interesting, if not the most interesting area of photography. Unfortunately, this is no longer like earlier. The personality rights are very protected in good reason. However, what many today's photographers does not stop taking photos in a city of foreign people, then for alienating them with a software and then represent this as art.
Since 2011 I live on the wildromantic French Atlantic coast on the Point de Médoc, a beautiful and very inspiring landscape. In this respect, nature photography has a high priority. But I can not say that I like a topic most. I have ideas, I see something and then I realize it.
As I said, I have an idea, I see a suitable motive and I intend to take pictures.

How do you prepare a creation or project work?

As I said, I have an idea, I see a suitable subject and I decide to photograph it.

Photograph !! And the moment I realize that some good photos succeeded.

What are your most representative creations, and why?

En Reve, Two Worlds, 1984 | Nineteen Eighty-Four, Nirvana, Waves in black and white

What are you trying to share via your art?

First of all, I take photos for myself and not for others. Creativity is an elixir of life that does not require recognition, but also does not require any self-expression. But as already mentioned, with my work I can show my fellow human beings my view of things about the events, circumstances and conditions of the world and nature. In addition, moments and moments that I have seen and captured as well as visions.

I am a member of many art platforms and of course I look at the photos and paintings that are posted. One or the other picture gives me incentives. And as already mentioned, I own a large number of art and photo books by various artists. I look at these books again and again, especially on the winter evenings. But what inspires me most is nature.

I do not want to and will not advertise a brand here. Between 1986 and 2004 I mainly worked with a mechanical SLR camera. It wasn't that difficult and, above all, completely manual!
When the good films disappeared from the market, I started with the digital cameras with a heavy heart. After an initial “getting to know” with a simple digital camera and an intensive study of digital photography, I then decided on the “Four Thirds System” because it was completely redeveloped for digital photography, i.e. camera and lenses. And that turned out to be a very good decision.

At the beginning of my photography career, I was very inspired by Sieff and David Hamilton's photography technique. His pictures had soft and beautiful colors, almost poetic. I also used this recording technique. And so I was able to take beautiful photos of girls. I still have a photo of my wife hanging in my living room that I took 30 years ago. In street photography I was inspired by Doisneau, Brassai and Ronis, but then quickly found my own style. Time did not stand still.
In landscape photography I followed Sieff as a model, but that changed quickly here too.
With the advent of digital technology, it was suddenly possible to implement a completely different recording technology.

A simple example:
Today it is part of my repertoire to make abstract and moving pictures that are created by the camera and zoom movement. Often 100 images are taken very quickly, one of which can then be used. That was impossible in analog photography, even if you had an unlimited budget. A good film with 36 pictures cost between 10 and 25 euros. You can work out for yourself what came together.
My series Nirvana or “Eveil du Printemps” are fine examples of this. These pictures were all created by the camera and zoom movement. A technique that was almost impossible in analog photography. I was one of the first to create this technique. Today it is often imitated by software manipulation, as these photographers do not have mastered the real technology.
Otherwise I have to say that my photography is independent of trends and fashions as well as opinion-forming.

What does the Internet media give you?

I can present and exhibit my work all over the world on the Internet!
A painter paints his work on a canvas and can therefore exhibit them without any problems. They exist. Photographs must be printed. If you want to exhibit, let's say 30 pictures, that is at least € 5,000 in production costs. That doesn't pay off. You can let it be!

My inner self has always said to myself: do it!

If you couldn't be an artist what would you do?

Invent the art!

Create until my death.

Do you have anything else to say?

I regret the loss of knowledge of the photographers, a result of digital photography. Almost all of them take photos with cameras with all the technical refinements. The photos are produced in these cameras and not by the skill of the photographer. Afterwards, the image is then manipulated with software!
This is very unfortunate and it has nothing to do with real photography anymore. The real artists here are the software writers.
Just as a painter creates his work himself without a "software", I also have the claim to create my recordings largely without the aid of software.