Visiting Takko Head Office with Telgte Greens
As part of my work with Telgte’s Green party, I documented their mayor candidate Katja Behrendt’s visit to fashion brand Takko’s head office in Telgte on 8 May 2025.
As part of my work with Telgte’s Green party, I documented their mayor candidate Katja Behrendt’s visit to fashion brand Takko’s head office in Telgte on 8 May 2025.
For my photo project At Work, I visited the workshop of master organ builder Mathias Mebold in Siegen-Breitenbach. Instrument making is always fascinating for me, but organ building is special as there are so many different materials to work with: metal for the pipes, leather for the bellows and wood for the organ itself. For the portrait, we chose the tuning of the pipes. At the end there even was a little time left for some still lifes of tools.
Moved house. Again. First time with two children and at times it feels like losing them old marbles…
<p> </p> <p> </p>A few days ago I wanted to get a small chocolaty gift at Siegen’s Naschwerk and read that “This Shop is Closed”. When looking online for which one was open, I learned that they had all closed due to bankruptcy. And Boom! Siegen’s already utterly bleak food scene has become even more barren.
What makes the end of a four generation era dating back to 1912 even more heartbraking is the end of the message Markus Podzimek, the owner of Naschwerk, posted online: comments were closed due to the harsh reactions they experienced on social media. WTF.
I don’t know Markus well, but when I asked him for a favour two years ago, he was extremely generous. I called because I needed impeccable chocolate to photograph on short notice, and not only did he make time to meet me one day before Christmas Eve (one of the busiest days of the year, if not the busiest day), he also halted production and squeezed in a batch of BOOM! because the ones he had were not in shape to have their picture taken.
I’m really sorry to hear Naschwerk is no more and it is a shame it got ugly on social media. Roosevelt called it “the man in the arena” and old Sam Becket said “Ever tried, ever failed. Try again, fail again, fail better.” Stumbling is part of building something, Boom! is part of the creative process.
A historical golden Remontoir watch with cylindrical works and 10 rubys – an heirloom from my wife’s family. Difficult to see without a reference, but it’s only about 25mm in diameter
The lighting setup is “Melodi” and follows Martin Botvidsson fantastic tutorial utilising an IKEA lampshade. You can see more of Martin on instagram @botvidsson and his website.
Front and back of the classic five Deutsche Mark coin (also called a “Heiermann” for whatever reason). It was a pretty large and heavy but also somehow reassuring piece of currency. Despite that it clearly shows some wear after years of service. I somehow like the memory of how handling it feels. The other one is a 10 Pfennig coin from 1949 balancing on a 100 EUR note. The 10p still has “Bank Deutscher Länder” instead of “Deutsche Bundesbank” written on it.
While doing research on these old coins, I found it interesting how the obverse depicting the German Eagle changed over the years. On the 5-Deutsche-Mark coin, that was designed 1952 closer to the second world war, the eagle looks very meagre. The design on the fiver shown here is from 1975 and the bird does seem to have been fed much better.
As a side note: for the 10 p I used my home built tilt-shit-lens.
My friend Luke gave me his leather cricket ball when I visited him in Melbourne in 1998. I love the way it looks and feels and also the memories it stores of a trip to see the other side of the world and, ultimately another side of myself. It has been sitting on my desk for all that time now, and posting this I realise it is more than a quarter of a century. Not to get too philosophical, but time flies like a cricket ball, fruit flies like a banana…
…with a glow.
This one is from the Hangar Project which I started with fellow photographer Rob Scamp. Our theme was “Something from the Sea” and I spent an hour with this shell, exploring angles, backgrounds and lighting set ups. On this one I particularly liked how the warm light radiating from inside contrasted with the toothed, rough outside.
…might not be the worst of ideas if it’s such a pretty vase!
Cracked Vase by Kaheku Schönes Wohnen provided by Linh Duong Blumenkunst.
This wonderfully crazy bottle by Cantina Pizzolato jumped out at me while shopping, so I had to take it home. If I remember correctly, it was even available in two more colours.
The best part of bottle photography: it comes preloaded with stuff to celebrate after the shoot. Looking forward to this organic sparkler!
Photography of interior and exterior views of a heating module with four heat pumps mounted on a container. The prototype was produced by a consortium of local businesses for a global manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning technology.
In the end there even was time for two portraits.
Working with fine glass is always a pleasure – if challenging. This time because I dropped a heavy steel washer into the liquid for a nice splash effect one too many times and destroyed my beautiful WMF brandy bucket (as a friend once called it because of the sheer size). At least it was a sacrifice for art…
Thanks to Matthias‘ hospitality I was able to spend a few hours with this beautifully designed piece of engineering. The three piston/four exhaust engine was liquid cooled, hence it was nicknamed the “Kettle” in Britain, the “Water Bottle” in Australia, and the “Water Buffalo” in the United States and Germany. Down to the last detail it is fascinating how much thought, work and craftsmanship must have gone into the scuplting of it, so the longer I worked, the more angles and aspects I discovered that deserved a picture. In the end I liked the side angle with the prominent the radiator most but also found the work on the exhausts pretty compelling!
A local hearing aid specialist hired me for portrait photography, capturing various scenes from a typical workday. I really enjoyed working with them as they had a pretty clear and realistic understanding of what was needed.
They were about to redo their whole website and needed fresh visuals to go with the fresh website but told me about the troubles they had finding a webdesigner who would still answer their emails and calls after first getting to know each other. It is right that, as they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but more important is matching the following imporessions to that first one. reliability is key.
The shooting of the portraits went very smoothly – also because the master hearing aid acoustician herself was extremely reliable – and in the end everyone was satisfied, but also a little exhausted from the rather demanding shot list.
Photos from a research project at Center for Sensor Systems at University of Siegen on structural health monitoring of the rotor blade on a wind turbine using sensor technology.
Staff Work for Center for Sensor Systems.
Same as last year, I had the honour to collaborate with Linh of Linh Duong Blumenkunst again on her invitation for the traditional Christmas exhibition. Always a pleasure – and always fine to see one’s work printed!
Photographing the wheels of a rolling stock wheelset with a sensor to monitor for structural health.
Staff Work for Center for Sensor Systems.
Composer, organist and music professor Martin Herchenröder at the historical Martinikirche in Siegen.
We met early in the morning and while I was setting up the planned shot at the piano, Martin Herchenröder played the organ. I noticed the gorgeous light he was sitting in, so in addition to the planned shot showing him as a composer at the piano, I came home with one of him as an organist, too.
Setting up the light for the piano shot then took some time as it involved repeatedly running up and down a flight of stairs in between camera and light. I did not mind though as it happened to the sound of the most beautifully played Goldberg Variations in an otherwise empty church. Afterwards Martin Herchenröder also told me, he actually got some real composing work done while I was shooting – a great day at the office I say…
This device is for very large thin-walled cylindrical steel components used in offshore windturbine monopiles. The photos were made for a research project located at Center for Sensor Systems at the University of Siegen, which aims to develop a smart roller turning device, on which the parts are manufactured, with an intelligent and active system for automated load distribution. Thus, by integrating elements of artificial intelligence, the currently limiting, production-related asymmetric load distributions and overloads, vibrations as well as drift phenomena can be largely compensated or prevented.
Staff Work für Zentrum für Sensorsysteme.
Replica of a Minoan Necklace of gold papyrus beads from the Archeological Museum in Heraklion (ca 1450 BCE) and a diamond ring with a rose and a clematis.
To me not only a beautiful piece of craftsmanship but also a reminder of generosity and kindness as Birgit, whom I only know via Grace Young’s lovely and very helpful “Wok Wednesday” group, lugged that rather unwieldy pot all across China and then back to Germany just because she thought I might enjoy having it. And I really do.
For the lighting concept I am grateful to Swiss photographer and Broncolor ambassador Urs Recher for his Aubergine setup which I used here (after testing it on an Aubergine first, of course).
And, just for laughs after a comment from Don Giannatti, one more with a vertical egg:
In early June I reached out to Ramen-Chef Erim Kreidel of Monaco Ramen to ask if he was interested in a collaboration on a kitchen utensils project. He was and we met at the Gasteig where he currently has his pop up location at Kulturdachgarten. Inside his incredible and custom made beauty of a Yatai (a Japanese food cart) we produced a shot that has all the tools you need for Ramen.
After finishing up with the kitchen utensils shoot, I asked if he had time for a portrait. Erim has been serving his incredible Ramen from various pop-up locations over the past years and instead of a more conventional approach we wanted to picture the taxing logistics, creativity and dedication involved when you have to move your whole restaurant to a new location every couple of months.
Then, the best part: Erim asked if I had some more time. He was hungry and was going to improvise a cooking session right there. Well. I’m glad I did have some more time! Amazing afternoon and ramen – thanks for having me!
It took a wedding to lure us back to vienna after eight years of absence. Christian’s hospitality was overwhelming and the fun it is to take his portrait didn’t change either.
A nice editing exercise.
Each bottle bottle, surface, background, grapes and glass shot seperately and then composited in photoshop. Here’s the behind the scenes:
A few food shots from the past couple of weeks.
Glowing pineapple inspired by Radu Zaciu’s “The Light Inside“.
On a bad day it can feel like everything is an obstacle, but on a good day you’re just flying through traffic!
Experimenting with a Camera Obscura, the mother of all cameras.
In the BTS below you can see how the church is projected onto a bedsheet through a metal washer I placed into the cardboard used to darken the study.
An 89 sec exposure at f5 and ISO 200 on my Nikkor 24mm.
Some mixed reactions on this one – but awesome feedback from Lavera, and that’s what matters.
What could be a more tasteful farewell gift than a bottle of Ardbeg?
Thanks to Martin Botvidsson’s pointers!
Crankbrothers caps, modeled by an unwashed Specialized Stumpjumper.
Florist Linh Duong of Linh Duong Blumenkunst Siegen at work.
Composite in the studio. Important note for next time: clean glasses first!
It has been a while since I last rubbed elbows with Goethe, Schiller and the likes in this neat little town — close to a quarter of a century to be precise. In total everybody in the family loved the experience, the only place we found somewhat disappointing was the Bauhaus-Museum.
Frohe Ostern allerseits!
Zwei rohe Eier: eins mit eins ohne Schale. Mit Schale in natürlichem Licht, ohne im Studio mit einem Aufbau von Gary Perweiler.
Years (really: decades) ago, my wife won a beautiful Baume et Mercier wrist watch. I decided to shoot it to practice a one light setup, following a tutorial by the incredible Max Bridge. I ended up focus stacking 200+ picures for a 15 image composite and learned the hard way that from up close you see every. single. tiny. little. scratch. And dust. And misalignment. So the fun really began when I started reconstructing, cleaning and healing. Here’s the before and after:
Drummer Marcel Kawentel. Professionally also Kawentel of screenwriters Kawentel & Lombeck. Many thanks to son Luis for assisting me.
“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough” (M. Andretti).
The next jump ended in hugging a tree and I – once more – was happy, Heike was there…
Rocket fuel concept with background image by NASA via https://unsplash.com/photos/dCgbRAQmTQA
Obwohl es zwei Tage vor heilig Abend war und somit die engste Zeit des Jahres, nahm Maître Chocolatier Markus Podzimek vom Naschwerk sich spontan Zeit, mir die besten Stücke herauszusuchen. “Boom!” wurde sogar eigens in die Produktion geschoben. – Vielen Dank!
Visit to Beate Weiß in her Siegen ceramics studio (http://www.weiss-keramik.de/).
German national and world champion in Ju Jutsu from Siegen, Lili is a Worldclass ahtlete and human being!
Documentation of the annual Christmas exhibition at Linh Duong Blumenkunst Siegen.
With more than a decade of experience, I strengthen the visual identity of my clients through industrial, academic, and corporate photography.
I also headed communications departments in both the corporate and the academic world and this background enables me to get you the visuals you need – every time!
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 seizes 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 © 2007-2025 Jan Söhlke. All Rights Reserved.