Hi, I’m Jakob – a photographer with a focus on architecture and black-and-white imagery. My work is minimalist, honest, and straightforward.
I am 16 years old and started with photography about 2 years ago. Everything started with capturing moments with my phone, already finding my passion in desaturated images.
I found, that in monochrome photography, the image needs to tell a story not by the tone of colors, but by the use of light.
This light is then used to create contrast in the image to make the subject *POP*
Another factor needed to achieve this kind of contrast is the use of texture. I am always looking for cool textures, preferiably on house walls, as this is what I found my main interest in. This let to me diving deep into the world of architecture. From the boldness of the designs of the BAUHAUS, which is exellently located in my hometown Dessau, to the coldness of soviet era appartment blocks. During this time I also engaged a lot with my hometown and found joy in exploring every single part of it. That phase was like an eye opener to me, as I saw the ''not so nice sides'' of my city for the first time.
I started wandering through industrial areas and partly abandoned districts. For the first time I had then stepped foot into an abandoned building called ''Lost Place''.
My first ever black and white photo shot on a snow trip in Austria.
My first ever lost place adventure.
That Lost Place was a reconmondation of one of my friends. An old brewery. When I stepped in all the outside noise was cut off. Its the fear that anything could happen to you while exploring. But thats also what kept me pushing further into the building.
After that Lost Place I knew that there was a lot more to come with my new found passion.
Now I started walking around my city searching for more of these Lost Places. I found a lot of them and started exploring, not really focusing on photography. When me and my friends explored every LP (*Lost Place) that I had scouted out previously, I finally got a lost place app to see what I otherwise would'nt have seen.
Now that I think back to my first tries with Lost Places it keeps getting clearer to me how much luck I had to not get caught. :^)
I soon had to take a break from Urbexing (*Term for exploring Lost Places), because one of the most life changing events of my whole life was about to take place.
NEW ZEALAND
My journey to New Zealand was intentionally planned, as a half year stay in a host family to see the country and to get some refreshment in shool as i had struggles back in Germany, but ended up being a whole year long. I got new friends there pretty quickly, who were also interested in photography like I did. They showed me around Auckland and taught me about photography conventions and how to even use a real camera. I found great joy in shooting with a bigger camera. My parents on the phone might have noticed too, that I got more and more interested in photography, because they later sent me their travel camera to New Zealand for my birthday. That was like a start shot for me. I quickly learned all the different techniques and downloaded Lightroom for the first time.
Then for my 16th birthday I set up all my social media profiles to showcase my work to the public.
On August 29th my first ever photography post reached Instagram. Until this day it has gained 10 likes and 2 comments which was a big thing for me at the time.
During my stay in New Zealand I had joy taking photos with my camera, but always had the feeling, that something was missing. It was my hobby ,,Urbexing''. I had been watching a lot of videos of YouTubers like Shiey or Gifgas at a time and wanted to start my own little adventures again too.
Though I didn't want to get in trouble with exploring abandoned places in New Zealand, I still took advantage of their ideas of freedom and control, which I try to implement in my life nowadays as well.
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Now to find my link back to photography. In this one year of New Zealand experience, I took over 6000 photos, majority of them in black and white. Later I was able to use enhance my photography skills, by learning Adobe Lightroom and other editing softwares for my videos like DaVinciResolve. And that is my story on how I found my passion.