Jan Söhlke | Scientific, Industrial & Corporate Photographer

I specialise in photographing scientific research and industrial operations – and the people who run them. My photography covers laboratories, cleanrooms, and research institutions, R&D environments, factory floors and production sites: environments that are both technically complex and operationally demanding. As staff photographer and scientific coordinator at ZESS/University of Siegen, I am embedded in DFG-funded research on sensor systems and machine learning – and as such have a familiarity with exactly the types of environments I photograph for others. That shapes what is possible before the shoot begins.

Knowing the type of environment is half the preparation: it means knowing what to ask in advance, which conditions to prepare for, where constraints might come from, and whom to find before the shoot rather than during it. It also minimises the production footprint, the time spent on location goes directly towards the images, and when the groundwork is in place, there is room for the shot no brief could anticipate because it only happens when everything else is already solved.

As a scientific and industrial photographer, my commissions are predominantly in research facilities, industrial operations, and corporate environments. And yet interesting work comes in unexpected forms – hence I occasionally take on projects outside those areas, if they bring their own visual dynamic and something worth exploring conceptually. My range and curiosity are built on a PhD from LMU Munich, a decade heading communications across research, business, and startup environments, 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: getting the shot is not merely about the equipment; it is about alignment built through the right conversation – from the lab across the boardroom to the loading dock.