Philipp is a German photographer based in Singapore. Attracted by the co-existence and overlap of Old and New, his work explores land- and cityscapes and how they converge, how architecture changes its meaning and appearance once it is outdated and hardly functioning. How old ways of life are altered under modern imperatives and how people's daily approaches change in an ever-changing world. He is drawn to the beauty and dinginess of the out-of-order, imperfect, out-dated and seemingly useless.

Looking at your body of work, one comprehends complete involvement from your side. What is the mantra that keeps you motivated and lets you innovate with lighting, mood and the creative flow in your imagery?

Given that photography is not an end in itself in order to produce merely visually attractive pictures, but a possible way to deliberately face the myriad oddities of our world, there is no other way than to immerse in what’s around me and in the question of how I am personally related to it.
Robert Capa’s frequently quoted statement “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,” for me now is not a matter of specific lenses or your physical distance to the subject. It is about how excited you are with what you see and experience, how important it is for you – be it a soldier’s face, a desert, an empty space, a distance to someone, a trash bag.
I can’t forget the admittedly simple advice of one of my lecturers, the American photographer Brian Palmer: "Try to be honest - honest to others, but also to yourself. You want to push some boundaries, yes, but don’t force it. Listen to your joys, insecurities and fears. Work with and not against them; include them in your work." Since I believe my photography is as much about me, as it is about other people and places and hence my connection to them, I am automatically involved. It’s my way of trying to bring an order to an inapprehensible world; a very enjoyable, but often difficult and hopeless undertaking that constantly adds up more questions.

When did you realise your inclination towards photography and what was the first object you shot?

My friends and I took pictures of each other back in the 80’s. Looking at them now, some might appear pretentious, but nevertheless in many of them one can feel our longing for earnestness and to be taken seriously by the (grown-up) world.
Afterwards I somehow forgot about the thrill involved in framing pieces of the world, in stopping the time for a fraction of a second and thereby, even making the passing of time shockingly apparent.
Only more than 20 years later, I accidentally realized that the limiting frame of the viewfinder (I guess I will never get used to taking pictures with a digital screen floating in front of me) offers me a fantastic chance to discover and focus on topics I am intrigued with.
And if you don’t only comfortably hide behind the box of your camera it really can be a finder of much more views into the world.

“What interests me while creating and absorbing images is the way how photography engages with all the countless absurdities and oddities of life and death and in between, be it in a radical or subtle manner, documentary or conceptual.”

What is it about landscapes or cityscapes that inspire you to create such outstanding works of art?

I appreciate you calling it outstanding work of art and I am sort of satisfied with some of my photos, but, without false modesty, I have to say I am still at the beginning of translating my thoughts and feelings into matching visuals.

Nevertheless this is a tough question, since there are so many reasons that can trigger my interest in a place. It can be a vast solitude or an overwhelmingly huge crowd of people, but even more so an apparently banal and average sight that might tell more about life than any sensational or obvious situation.
Probably without really grasping the intellectual depth of Roland Barthes’ examinations in Camera Lucida I can see the relevance of what he describes as the “punctum”. Besides having a cultural and political context (the “studium”), the “punctum” appears in some photosasa part, “that shoots out […] like an arrow and pierces me”. A detail, that personally wounds me, be it some kind of dislocation or abstruseness. You can feel that as a viewer of a picture and as the photographer.

Are you a self taught photographer or did you have a mentor who showed you the ropes?

I was self taught in the beginning and I am now, but once I realized the camera is the tool I seriously want to work with, I looked (and I am still looking) for experienced artists, explorers of that field and friends for new perspectives, critic and open discussions.

I am grateful to Objectifs in Singapore www.objectifs.com.sg for offering many good courses, that made me learn a lot beyond the technical aspects of photography.

You have also shot people extensively. How do you make them pose for you, especially when most of the time, you don’t even speak the same language?

Maybe there are three main ways to approach people.
You can either take a quick snapshot of someone who isn’t aware of it, you spend a lot of time with your subject, so he/she will occasionally forget about being a character in your story, or you are not invisible at all and you try to capture all the different levels of consent and discomfort with your presence. Often it is a combination of all three and each way has it’s significance and rationale.
When not shooting from the distance in order to position people as rather anonymous actors in a certain frame of space, I definitely enjoy to be part of the scene, to acknowledge my presence as a photographer – as someone who does not hide the fact that he is interested in the counterpart and seeks for communication and exchange of experiences. I guess this is as important as the visual outcome. Maybe the camera is just my excuse to get closer to the people who live in a world that seems so very different from my own.

“Chasing the chaos or a possible underlying order of the world with my camera lets me experience a steady swaying of small achievements and failures.”

Which genre of photography attracts you the most and why?

Actually I can’t decide on one. Photography has limitations in how we can tell or show certain events, thoughts and matter, but the beautiful thing is still that within those boundaries you are free to combine or cross defined genres.
What interests me while creating and absorbing images is the way how photography engages with all the countless absurdities and oddities of life and death and in between, be it in a radical or subtle manner, documentary or conceptual.
I am bored by any kind of photographs that solely want to lure people into dispensable habits of consumption - fashion, products, a lifestyle and even news. We are apparently producing, consuming, dumping and polluting far too much already and are consequently sawing off the branch we are sitting on. I don’t want to produce photos for commercial purposes that accelerate those processes, neither do I want to create art that ignores the precarious situation the environment, people and humankind as a whole is in.
However, in order to engage with this issue I can‘t avoid to question my personal lifestyle and my way of working. I believe in a political significance of the private and, therefore, of art.

I am afraid that wasn’t really an answer to your question, was it?
I guess I like to tell thoughtful stories about people and places that are away from the public focus.

People like to talk about their 'lucky breaks' but I think it's more hard work and passion that leads to a breakthrough to becoming a professional photographer. When was your breakthrough?

Growing up in a relatively comfortable and carefree environment in Germany, I feel every attempt to leave the routine and convenience of my daily life as a kind of breakthrough. Chasing the chaos or a possible underlying order of the world with my camera lets me experience a steady swaying of small achievements and failures. Learning to basically appreciate this fact is my biggest breakthrough so far.

As a photographer, do you find that you see photographically all the time or do you turn it off and on when you are shooting with a camera?

I have to admit, that it becomes increasingly difficult to walk around without a camera. It might be an alarming sign, in that I need a recording device as much as a cleaning freak needs a duster.

Looking back at your works, which of your pictures do you think make the strongest impression upon you and why?

It’s difficult to single out one picture.
The photo of a construction worker in Chengdu, China, might be the one with the biggest impact on me. I was taking it with a zoom lens from afar and while choosing the right frame I realized he had noticed me and his quiet and straight look seemed to go right through the lens via the mirror into my eye, although for him I must have appeared as a small figure on the other side of the highway. Maybe for the first time it really struck me that taking a picture of someone is not a one-way action - which eventually means one also has to carefully consider if and what you are taking away from someone you photograph. You can have power over your subject, who might be defenseless in front of your camera.
I like to imagine, that the worker in Chengdu really disagreed on having his picture taken, but instead of turning away or hiding his face, he somehow shot back and showed me his rejection. It might be uncomfortable, but it is good to feel a legitimate resistance and not only look for pleasing, compliant subjects. Maybe in this case he was just interested or rather tired and indifferent in the end.

“…my photography is as much about me, as it is about other people and places and hence my connection to them, I am automatically involved. It’s my way of trying to bring an order to an inapprehensible world; a very enjoyable, but often difficult and hopeless undertaking that constantly adds up more questions.”

Do you consider yourself to be a technical person or an artistic person and why?

I actually wish I had more interest in the technical side of things, but I trust that I will gain more skills along the way while working. Basically I don’t like to extensively prepare or read about gear. Call it laziness. For some projects though technical effort is crucial and I am slowly improving.

Quick 7:

1. Your Favourite Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5
2. Your Favourite Shoot: Any excursion leading me to hidden spaces,a stone's throw away from bustling places: www.behance.net/gallery/Lost-in-Transition/2946633
   
3. Your Preferred Location: Underneath bridges
4. Favourite Photographer:Josef Koudelka
5. Most memorable story: Visiting an old couple on Pulau Ubin, a small island next to Singapore, that partly still looks like the mainland 30-40 years ago: www.behance.net/gallery/Leaving-Ubin/353921
   
6. Current photographers you like: Lewis Baltz, Joachim Schmid, Michael Ackerman
7. Toughest day at work: Photographing a sulfur mine in East Java in Indonesia, where I almost suffocated from thick and toxic smoke, while it was a ‘usual’ day for the hard-working miners.

www.behance.net/gallery/Working-the-S16-Sulfur-Mining-in-East-Java/970405

Photos by Philipp Aldrup | Fotosocila