Featured Photographer #47: Valentin Zelger
I want to apologize in advance because I’m not a very good writer and writing this was really hard for me. I’m more of a visual guy than a poet. But I’m really more than happy to get featured, so let’s begin.
My name is Valentin Zelger, I’m 25 years old and I live in Vienna, Austria. I study Photography at the Graphische in Vienna since 2015. Before that I went to Film school and worked on film sets in the light & camera department.
Where did you meet photography or where did photography meet you? I always loved taking pictures and videos and used whatever I could find to do that. As a child I always wanted to become a director but then I found out that the director isn’t the guy behind the camera, so after that the dream was being a cameraman.
For a long time I never thought about doing photography as well, the idea came to me when I was on vacation on Bali. I was tired of having to carry around my heavy DSLR on vacation so I just took two small point & shoots with me and some rolls of film. When the pictures were developed, I immediately fell in love with the look of them.
That was the moment when I fell in love with film photography and the whole analog process.
What attracts you to the work you shoot? I don’t really specialize in any kind of photography. When I want to do architecture then I do architecture, when I feel like portrait, I do portrait.
With my photography I want people to show how I see the world and maybe give the viewer a little push to look a bit closer on the seemingly ordinary things in life. Because often these are the most beautiful things.
What’s in your camera bag? I always carry more than one camera in my bag but it really depends on what I want to do. Most of the time I carry my Leica M6 and my Sony A7II with me. I use the same lenses for both cameras and I also really love my Hasselblad with which I use the Lumu the most.
It just feels good to fire the shutter of this big, heavy, beautiful camera and then having these really great negatives. But I also shoot a lot with cheap point & shoot cameras because you can always have them with you in your jacket or backpack.
If you could give one final advice to your fellow photographers, what would it be? Think before you push the shutter and don’t rely on the post processing.
Top 4 current photographers? Gregory Crewdson, Adreas Gusrky, Matthias Heiderich, Glashier
Instagram: @zerlegerv
For more Valentin’s photos check our Flickr group: LINK.
