About this website

After more and more young photographers or students asked for background information about my photos and photo-historical connections, I decided to provide a website that not only shows photos, but also explains how they were created and why. The easiest way to browse through is on your smartphone, as the site is structured according to "mobile-first". And I am not a native English speaker. So, I beg your mercy when it comes to accuracy.

Let others judge my work and let me show off a bit

His pictures tell all. The German photographer Joachim Baldauf creates pictures of captivating clarity and subtle irony. They are more than just photographs or fashion shots, more than just youth culture or lifestyle. Due to Baldauf’s very personal approach, his pictures always present the human subject as an individual. Baldauf is the unchallenged number one among Germany’s fashion and portrait photographers and an influential leader in matters of style; his work has appeared in most renowned magazines. In 2004, together with the graphic designer Agnes Feckl, Baldauf founded the publishing house Printkultur, which publishes the magazine Vorn as well as a variety of books. Since 2009, he has worked as a lecturer and guest speaker at various universities, including the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design, the University of the Arts Bremen and the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin.

-SLANTED

Joachim Baldauf is considered one of the most influential portrait and fashion photographers. His pictures bring out what our culture has to offer in terms of aesthetics, beauty, character and wit. With formalistic images that focus entirely on people, fashion, objects, spaces and colors, Baldauf shapes the visual language of national and international magazines and campaigns. Style and humanity are not antagonists for him. He takes both seriously, taking note of the person in the model as well as the sculpture in a dress. Baldauf gives his models space, works through them to a certain extent and at the same time is himself present in every picture.

After studying textile design with a focus on photography and fashion drawing, Baldauf initially worked as a freelance art director for a number of years before deciding to focus entirely on photography. The ex-Berliner-by-choice has  received several awards, including the Cover of the Year, the Lead Award, the Art Directors Club Award and the Distinctive Merit Award. He is also co-editor of VORN magazine and a lecturer.

- PHOTOGRAPHIE

Joachim Baldauf’s work has an immediate effect on the viewer. His charismatic black & white shots stand out for their rawness and subtle irony – unmistakable hallmarks of the Berlin-based photographer. Here, the models are more than a mere means of presenting fashion – humans are presented as individuals in all their multi-faceted glory. With its artistic nature, fashion photography intentionally crosses the boundary between commercial and fine art. It is a concept that is revolutionising the German fashion industry from the bottom up, and it’s no coincidence Baldauf is considered Germany’s leading contemporary portrait and fashion photographer.

The artist’s 2015 collaboration with a select group of internationally renowned illustrators is both innovative and unconventional. A series of diptychs put graphic reinterpretations of Baldauf’s remarkable photography side by side with his photos. The results could not be more stunning, allowing us to look at his work in a completely new light, whether it is the muscular Darth Vader as depicted by Mathis Rekowski in his controlled chaos style, or the slender figure of Sybille Gebhardt on Hamburg’s harbour put into an innovative new context by Jindrich Novotny. The juxtaposition of photography and re-interpretation makes these diptychs a unique artistic experience.

Baldauf himself sees a special significance in this project. To him, this productive exchange between individual artistic spheres embodies the spirit of contemporary art, pushing the scene forward. This is one of the reasons why he established the magazine VORN over 10 years ago. Characteristic of his work is his distinctive flair for fashion and materiality, no doubt formed during his many years of experience as an Art Director. Joachim Baldauf’s work has been shown in the DEICHTORHALLEN in Hamburg, and in Berlin’s CAMERA WORK gallery.

- LUMAS

Joachim Baldauf is one of the most important advertising and fashion photographers of our time.

- VOGUE.DE

Portrait photo by Marina Geckeler