Jan Söhlke
Photographer for science, industry, and corporate clients.
Based in NRW, Germany, and working wherever the assignment takes me, I photograph laboratories, research facilities, industrial operations, and the people who run them – with the eye of someone genuinely curious and the preparation of someone who knows both the environments and what it takes to work in them.
My background includes a decade heading communications across research, business, and startup environments, a PhD, and more productions than I can count where the brief was vague, the access was limited, and the expectations were complex. That is how I know: translating a location into visuals that work is not about the equipment. It is about someone who can read the operations of a university, a research institute, or an industrial company – from the lab across the boardroom to the loading dock.
Alongside my scientific and industrial work, I also shoot products, portraits, and personal projects that fall outside any brief. The through-line is the same: impact comes from preparation, patience, and openness to the unexpected.
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.
Explore how a strategic approach to photography elevated the brand identity for coaching agency Sunny Monday – from location sc...
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 also bring an understanding of the world I shoot in to every assignment – 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 moving some furniture around and thus creating a carefully designed context for the subject, photography can condense the many facets of a personality into a still image.
Copyright © 2007-2026 Jan Söhlke. All Rights Reserved.
