BronImagingBlog

I started taking pictures early on, around the age of 12. For both, my father and grandfather photography was a hobby. My grandfather was actually a serious amateur-film-geek. So I grew up with Super 8 and started to film occasionally on trips and family vacations when I was eleven years old. I loved the medium but wanted more control and I found that photography was the field to be in. By the time I was thirteen I bought my first camera and grated up to a Nikon FE two years later due to a school workshop. I had my first exhibition of street-portraits when I turned sixteen. I think I fell in love with being in charge and overcoming certain personnel boundaries. It was exciting!

I remember very well one of the key-moments that I had at the age of fifteen – on T.V. I was watching a documentary about Oliviero Toscani shooting and creative directing for Benetton It just made click in my guts and I knew which direction I wanted to take. Ten years later (meanwhile I had graduated from one of the best Photo/Film/Design Schools in Germany, the FH Bielefeld and had moved to Paris right afterwards) I had the pleasure to assist Toscani on a two weeklong Benetton production in the renowned PIN UP Studios. For me it was a dream coming true, just like walking on clouds. And then again very funny coincidence, another 11 years later – I hadn’t seen Oliviero for a long time, just a week before my move from Paris to New York I ran into him in a lab, we had a good laugh. Photographically he didn’t really influence me that much but I admire his game in advertising – a real psychological master: A) he’s talking the gospel B) he always knows when and how to push the right buttons. I think Toscani is a genius in his own right; he has a great sense of humor, too. Ha-ha

Well, since my college-time I was shooting little ad-jobs and worked as a photojournalist for different papers. My technical foundation as a photographer I certainly acquired from my long time as an assistant – my first job in Paris was a freelance position at Condé Nast, working on VOGUE, VOGUE HOMME and GLAMOUR productions, I worked with many of the big boys. At the beginning here in New York I free-lanced around like crazy and assisted for example Patrick Demarchelier for a couple of years. Later on I got around as a hired gun particularly because of my good knowledge of light. So make a long story short, I guess I can say without pretension that I learnt from the best.

In these times of “sometime” over-post-production I remain a strong believer of doing as much as possible “on camera” – I think the right high-standard approach and mix between old-school shooting-style and cutting edge digital technologies will bring me the best results.

If you ask me for my photo heroes, there are so many but the most important ones are certainly the following: Guy Bourdin, Chris Von Wangenheim, Helmut Newton, WeeGee, August Sander and E.J. Bellocq.

I remember having a moment back in Paris at a point when my career looked liked anything that would ever happen. My apartment in the 18th Arrondissement faced a nice backyard, the night was just about to fall and a beautiful pink moon was lighting the scene. I had one more Polaroid in my old SX70 and said to myself: “What the heck, probably it won’t work, but just try it!” In the scene was a small, brightly shining window and the little, technical voice in the back of my head started to lament: “It’s going to burn out, it’s going to burn out!” It turned out that the exposure-time was proximately 3 seconds, handhold! – and I swear to God after one second of exposure the window-light went off and I had my perfect shot, in Polaroid, unique! That was such a magical moment, almost religious. The beautiful, framed photograph hangs on the wall in my apartment, it’s my personnel, little treasure and often before a shooting when I walk by, I feel gratitude and it reminds me of the fact that talent is just a borrowed gift that needs to be taken care of. When Lady Muse shows up around the corner and is ready for a date, never second-guess, just grab her by the hand and go for it. I also try to approach every shoot almost as if it could be my last, this way there is a good chance that I’ll be fine and do great work! For me being a photographer is one of the best jobs in this world, it’s living the dream!

In Paris I shot for many years famous and not so famous American Jazz Musicians. In 2002 the Smithsonian Institution in D.C accepted right after my arrival in New York my portfolio of these photographs. I learnt a lot from these guys but most importantly I developed one very important component of my style and that is the mix of inspired improvisation and well-prepared structure. As an artist you MUST know your technique inside out/second nature so you kind of be able to “forget” it and to get loose. Let inspiration and the moment take over!

The last five years I was a member of the famous Boxing Gym GLEASON’s in Brooklyn, at the very beginning just to shoot and then to become a boxer myself and to give my take from the inside. Boxing is a great meditation and a balance to the professional photo-world. I had an exhibition during the Dumbo Art Festival in 2006 and Everlast featured my work in their Magazine in 2007. But most importantly boxing strengthened my back-bone, my stamina and it emphasized a virtue that every photographer must have in order to make it, no matter on which level he/she is: Exercise, train and never give up!

The featured fashion-story “Luxe Generation” for MR Magazine just came out. I developed the autumn 2010 men’s story with my fashion-director John Jones. We shot in studio and I used the BRONCOLOR Ring flash C. I love that light because it perfectly fits in with my other lighting techniques and helps me to keep a consistent style in my photography, an edgy look that represents my vision and makes my work recognizable. I modified the Ring flash a little bit, put a grid up-front and intensified the fall-off with black-foil paper. This is where the instinctive feel for each shot kicks in. Shooting this story just felt like a dance.

Depending on distance, the featured fashion, my frame, the angle etc. I modified the fall-off also to get away from too much uniformity. There is one feature on the Ring flash C that I like; the ten 20-Watts Halogen model-lights help tremendously with the auto-focus of the camera. In my shoot the Ring flash was powered by the SCORO AS 4, a real Formula One racing-machine, perfect for fashion if you like to go fast! Ha-ha

Thanks again to Sean Moser from Scheimpflug for the great service!

Altogether I honestly have to say that broncolor-packs are my favorite strobe-packs and this is not just some PR talk. I grew up with them back in Germany during my college-time; it was the lighting equipment we were trained on. As an assistant I loved them, because they were very reliable and that took away a lot of heat from us especially when we were shooting chrome-film. Everybody knew that we absolutely needed to be on, if not no food for the assistants or when you were on production out of town you could spend the night somewhere in a yard in the doghouse. Ha-ha
Now I am using them for my own work and I adore the precision and features of the packs. As a photographer they give me a lot of technical freedom and various options particularly in more complex lighting situations.

Do I really need to mention that broncolor is a Suisse company; I think that we shouldn’t expect anything less than the best in lighting equipment from a region that builds the world’s best watches, should we?!

Thorsten Roth
www.thorstenroth.net