I started my photography journey in late 2009, at that time I shot everything and none of them made me fully happy and satisfied until I started shooting long exposure photography.
The reason I love long exposure photography and presenting my images mainly in black and white/monochrome is it enables me to express my own personal vision and to recreate the world in my images according to my imagination thus giving them a personal note.
I have a slight preference for Architecture Photography as well as for “Architectural Street Photography, where I combine two subjects of equal importance. It always fascinates me to see how different shapes, lines and light combine and play off each other. In my Architecture Photography I avoid showing the viewer a simple game of patterns and lines, but I try to reach the soul of the structure by using light and shade, tonal values and chiaroscuro to emphasize the appeal of structural forms, like for example in my series Musical Architecture and Shape of Sounds. The images consist in abstract art forms based on rhythm, proportion and harmony. The same characteristics that please the eye also please the ear. Musical terms such as rhythm, texture, harmony, proportion, dynamics, and articulation refer both to architecture and to music.
In my Architectural Street Photography, the presence of people is intended to reveal the architectural object, which can be noticed in my series Soul of a City. I am using motion blur of people in my images on purpose to give the image a timeless feeling. My main aim is to create images that provoke emotion, stimulating the mind of the viewer and to convey my ideas and feelings of beauty which surround us everywhere. Since lately I concentrated as well on landscape photography always trying to find different shapes and lines offered in nature, which fascinates me the most.
I personally prefer to work on photography series instead of isolated images, as I feel it is an effective way to generate creativity. Photography series helps me to improve artistically. It gives me the possibility to express myself in a more effective way. It is my visual language of telling a story. My aim is creating images that stays with me, the viewer and fulfil my personal vision instead of creating only popular images and it makes me feel very happy when people understand the story behind the image, which is the most important aspect for me, when publishing or exhibiting my images. Photography is such a powerful tool to communicate, stimulate and provoke, just like for a writer his book. Another very important aspect for me is, since I discovered long exposure photography for myself, I feel in peace with myself, which allows me to enjoy the place which surrounds me, the time to prepare for my shoot to take the picture and to free my creativity.
Photography for me involves a lot more than a simple click on the camera trigger button. It is a combination of my own vision, light painting and photography itself. It involves quite a bit of study as well as a lot of creativity. It is for me a continuous challenge and learning process. At this point I would like to quote the famous painter Pablo Picasso, who made a very interesting statement: “I have always been very interested in photography. I have looked at far more photographs than I have paintings. Because their reality is stronger than reality itself.”
About Kerstin Arnemann
I am German and live in Malta, a very tiny but beautiful island. Photography is the best way for me to express myself. I love fine art, monochrome, long exposures of architecture, motion blur, intentional camera movement and architectural street photography. [Official Website]
