About photographer

Welcome!

I'm a semi-professional, predominantly self-taught photographer specializing in fine-art photography. I've been fascinated with nature, especially sea and landscapes, all my life, and how it relates to personal feelings, atmosphere and moods. Got my first camera around the age of ten more than 40 years ago. Therefore, artistic landscape photography has always been a favorite subject, also viewing landscape paintings (e.g., created by Caspar David Friedrich, William Turner).

For the last ten years I have primarily used digital SLR cameras, though still employing and developing (b&w 35 mm) film occasionally.

Homepage:
www.volkerbirke.com

Recent awards and accomplishments:
Several international awards at
- "International Photography Awards" (IPA)
- "Prix de la Photographie, Paris" (Px3)
- "The International Award Honoring Black & White Photography" (Black & White Spider Awards)
- "The International Award Honoring Color Photography"
- "Stark Awards"
- "International Bavarian Circuit"

Two collective exhibitions at Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA, 2013 and 2014

Let me cite a good text what describes well what is important to me (for further information about me please check out on my Website "About").

ORDER OUT OF CHAOS
"My job as a photographer is to bring order to chaos. While it's true that our world is full of visual richness, it's also true that our world is full of visual chaos. The difficulty in creating strong, dynamic photographs is in dealing with that chaos. Out of an infinite number of elements, I (and you) have to select and arrange a certain number of them into some visual harmony.
Consider the difference between a painter and a photographer. Starting with a blank canvas, the painter constructs an image by adding only those elements needed for visual excitement. But my job as a photographer is to eliminate, to strip away many of those chaotic elements that exist in front of me until I arrive at the strongest possible image."
Norton, B. (2001) "The Art of Outdoor Photography - Techniques for the Advanced Amateur and Professional", Voyageur Press, Hong Kong, ISBN 13:978-0-89658-459-4, 12

Thank you very much for stopping by and your interest in my work!
Volker