Pipe People

This is a project about the many interesting people of the pipe world. It contains mostly portrait photographs I took at pipe shows around the world during the last two years. This collection of photographs does not differenciate between rank or fame, established or new – in fact if you made a good shot that day and I was there with my camera, you just might find yourself here. To me photography – like my pipe making – is a way of expressing what I see when I am looking at things or scenes or people. In pipemaking I try to convey what I see by giving an intrepretation of it to the perceiver, enhanced by the way I photograph my pipes – which has been criticized more than once for not being „commercial“ enough – whereas in portrait photography I try to capture the decisive moment, where the person's essence shines through, making the portrait authentic. It is then that every person shows his or her inherant beauty. I do mostly candid photography for one single reason: Most of us aren't natural photo models and tend to feel uneasy when a camera is pointed at them (me included). If however we are in familiar surroundings, engaged in activities we feel at home with or are passionate about, we are usually relaxed and in any case not destracted from our current authentic emotions which make us shine from within. This makes for beautiful and natural photographs. Given this, it is a natural codex for me as a photographer not to show people in awkward or unfavorable situations. Over the time I hope to collect enough good portraits to make a „real“ book about the people of the pipe world with text, an index and all the other things a real book should have. In the meanwhile I invite you to have a look and enjoy the wonderful world of pipe people.