AUTHENTIC PHOTO SESSION

My focus is to support your exploration — to help you be with whatever you want to look at, to hold what needs living through, to sit with what needs silence, or to point the lens at what needs seeing.

I don’t direct or pose you, and I try hard not to interfere. I follow your flow and hold the space. I may suggest something that I see would support your process, and then capture it when it happens. From a photography point of view you could call it a kind of documentary portrait.

It makes sense to come for an Authentic Photo Session when you want to meet something inside yourself and you need a Witness and a Guide.

FOCUS — EXPLORATION

In this format the photo itself is not the goal. We don’t shoot just to get pretty pictures; we shoot to deepen your exploration and your process. The photos may turn out very intimate — even a portrait over coffee cup could feel that way — and you might not want to show them to anyone. That’s perfectly fine. They’re for you.

Photography plays a supporting role. On one hand it’s an active Witness of your process. I photograph you, click the shutter, change lenses. We can talk while we work, you can dance, sit silently twenty meters away, or lie wearing your pijamas in front of Bundestag under a pooring rain. It can be theatrical. A perfomance. It can be quite.
Anything. Whatever your exploration needs.

Then we sit and wrap up the session — what happened just now. Same evening I send you all the pictures, with no editing, and we can go deeper: how the pictures reflect you, how they relate to your intention, what you see in yourself, how it feels to look at yourself “from outside” while remembering what it felt like “inside.” This is a vital part of the process: observing, listening, noticing what resonates and what hooks you.

At this stage we are not trying to find pictures where you “like how you look.” Photos you dislike can become an incredibly valuable resource — often richer and more revealing over time. Or we may find something strange, controversial, unfamiliar, ugly, amazing, unexpected. We’re looking for that: the previously invisible, the hidden treasure.

WHY CHOOSE AN AUTHENTIC PHOTO SESSION?

Primarily, when you have questions about how you perceive yourself and how others see you.

Or if you don’t like photos of yourself, hate being photographed, freeze in front of a camera and don’t know where to put yourself. It’s a great way to see yourself from the inside and the outside almost at the same time and to relate those two views.

Secondly, if you want to explore moods, states, or qualities — maybe something people usually avoid or fear, or something you want to invite more of into your life. Maybe something you want to bring out of the shadows, live through, and understand. To meet it face to face.

Thirdly, and originally, to simply be yourself — as you are — and to be seen. In practice this turns out to be the hardest part: radical honesty, openness, naturalness, imperfection. To be yourself. To be seen. To be accepted. As you are.

How an Authentic Photo Session can be useful to you:

As a fun experiment if you like trying new things — a chance to see yourself from the outside and uncover unexpected resources. That happens a lot.

As a one-off session tailored to your current question, if you’re already working with a therapist and want another perspective on a topic. Often one session uncovers a crucial element missing from months of work. Use it as an accelerator for your personal process.

As part of a larger, integrated process: we can meet with the camera and then continue without it. We might do an Authentic Photo Session in a “diagnostic” format and then work further in individual psychological sessions without the camera, exploring what’s important through conversation, creative work, and body-focused practices. The number and format of sessions will depend on your needs.

If you have questions, write to me and we’ll decide together which format best supports your goals.

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