Jan Söhlke,
Photographer.
Based in NRW, Germany, and working where my assignments take me, I photograph the full range of professional and personal life – laboratories and research facilities, factory floors and workshops, products and precision instruments, people in their studios, their labs, and their kitchens: I am always curious about what the world looks like when it stops moving.
The through-line is the same: I look for the centre of gravity in the frame, ways to root it in the environment, and stay open to what the brief couldn’t anticipate. Some of the most interesting images I’ve made were never on a shot list.
Alongside work for science, industry, and corporate clients, I pursue personal projects that fall outside any brief – portraits of artists and musicians, documentary work, and the kind of image that only happens when nobody asked for it.
The full range of professional life and the humans that shape it: my industrial, scientific and corporate photography, product photography, and portrait work.
Concept-driven projects and long-term series: exploring people, culture and environment.
A run-and-gun commission at Universität Siegen. The reference sheet I wish I'd had when the last station turned out to be a GTE...
A chance encounter in a lunch queue leads to a technical photography session at the University of Siegen’s wind tunnel, documen...
Discover how technical precision, compositing, and strategic consultancy created impactful campaign imagery in the 2025 elections.
Portraits of Joy Wangechi Muriithi and Stella Kemboi during their CARS research stay, documenting the international collaborati...
Exploring the intersection of precision and grace in a dance photography masterclass with dancer Daria Stratovych, and photogra...
Photographing a Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy Setup: An exploration of conflicting spatial demands and the interdisciplinary...
Exploring the intersection of high-level research and visual strategy: Dr. Jan Söhlke captures Europe's unique PVD system, focu...
A look at the researcher behind the CARS instrumentation. A study of focus and professional trust in science photography at ZES...
A photographical look at capturing nonlinear four-wave mixing and the precision of optical delay lines in a CARS laser setup.
You are looking for a photographer who will strengthen your visual identity or you have a photography project in mind you’d like to discuss? Get in touch, and we’ll make it happen:
I shoot on location in labs, factories, and research facilities, working with genuine curiosity for the processes and the people running them.
With more than a decade of experience in industrial, science, and corporate photography, I bring a genuine understanding of the world I shoot in – earned through completing a PhD and years heading communications across research, business, and startup environments.
What I enjoy about product photography is that through spending time with an object that otherwise gets overlooked as a mere utility, beauty can be found in unexpected places.
Making the extraordinary within the ordinary visible for others always is a very exciting process.
In the words of Arnold Newman, Portrait photography is 10% inspiration and 90% moving furniture.
It never ceases to amaze me how, by creating a carefully designed context for the subject (or: by moving some furniture around), photography can condense the many facets of a personality into a single image.
Industrial, scientific, and corporate photographer. Based in Telgte near Münster, within close reach of Osnabrück, Bielefeld, and the Ruhr area. Staff photographer at ZESS/University of Siegen. Working for research institutions, universities, and business clients across NRW and beyond.
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