I was born in 1942 in the small village of Lenzen in the former East German province of West Prussia which is now part of Poland. After the Second World War my familiy settled in Trier, the oldest town in Germany, close to the French border. That is the place where I grew up, went to school and completed an appreticeship in banking. After national service I moved to England where I worked in international banking for almost 11 years. Besides, I studied Economics at the University of London which provided the basis for my subsequent function as a financial and economic analyst. London was the place where I got interested in art. I also worked in Hong Kong for several years as a treasury accountant before returning to Germany to work as an analyst in Export- and Project Finance.

 

When I was 65 years of age, I retired. However, I still teach quite a few courses at the Frankfurt Adult Education College (VHS) as well as in firms. It gives me great pleasure to pass on some of my experience to younger people and also, one should not stop doing things after retirement.

 

I have always been interested in art, all kinds of art. I paint, mainly with pastels, charcoal and ink, but right now, I am mainly concentrating on photography. I started in 2001 with analog black and white and switched to digital photography two years ago. At the beginning, I found this rather difficult, maybe due to my age. But after a while I got a grip on it and now I am able to produce quite interesting work, so people say. The great challenge is to decide what to photograph. Most people start with landscapes. So did I. But then I realized that there are millions of landscape pictures in the internet, so there does not seem a point in me adding to these.

 

You have to find a niche. Something not many people do. Graffiti for example, rubbish, garbage, demolition, building sites, puddles or other things people normally would not look at or find particularly attractive. You can make it looking attractive. It depends how you want to present it. Have a look at the respective gallery in this Blog.

 

I participated in a few exhibitions already. The response of the people who came was encouraging, which gives me the confidence to carry on, try other things and perhaps diversify a bit. The most important thing is that I enjoy doing it.