Organs of the European Union

RescEurope has been the working title of some of my recent major activities in photgraphy. Being sort of tired after more than 20 years in commercial photography, performing and serving for global players and local heroes and at the same time being scared by some worldwide developments, I felt that I wanted to contribute both my skills and expertise to a different discipline in photography in a more passionate and profound way: Documentation / Photo Journalism. In late 2015 I accompanied a friend of mine making a series of interwiews with 30 New York typographs and designers, such as Milton Glaser who invented the I ♥︎ NY signet, Michael Bierut, Partner at Pentagram, NY and maker of Hillary Clintons Campaign. We also focussed on some young, fresh, and fairly wild illustrators like Jon Burgerman, Paul Hoppe, Nicholas Blechman at the New Yorker. I love to having got in touch with those guys but what after all really turned me on was the way we crisscrossed the city: Cycling! Instead of stuffing a car with hundrets of parts of equipment I was only carrying a backback-trolly that included a camera and a lens for making very intense pictures and a laptop. I was totally amazed! Back home this enlightening experience made me scraping up my money for buying a VW California and a bike rack in order to heading for a road trip through Europe, which, as turned out soon was slightly too ambitious at that moment. First of all, as a commercial photographer I still don`t know the channels that needed to be served for documentory images. And secondly I have to feed a family of three. Why Europe, some may ask. I experience the European Union as a place of hope and also it reflects a unique feel of home to me. It`s not easy to understand why Europeans would not run with the idea of a colourful and united Europe. My conclusion is that a lack of european self-confidence is leading to fail to recognize the positive and embracing character of that union and: Deficient communication! Why else would the idea of an attentive togetherness in a protected environment tend to create a feel of threat to so many people - even in those exhausting times? Making a long story short, with my roadtrip I targeted to contribute to a more positive and strong Europe by displaying its inherent vitality. I think the time has come to spread confidence and trust in Europe and also to remind the people that they are part of the favourable european ensemble. After realizing that this kind of project is not yet to be self-funded I decided to get started by realizing a downsized version of the Euro-Road-Trip by visualizing the Institutions of the European Union. And a few days after research and phone calls I travelled from Strasbourg via Frankfurt, Bruxelles to Luxembourg and actually captured architecture photos. Though my perception is that the processes taking place behind the mantle of the buildings overtop the size of the houses.