Antje Bormann

Welcome to the Artists Blog

1stAngel: When did you first become interested in art, in general?

Antje: If ballet counts, then at five. That’s when I started. Anything else much later.

Back in school in the GDR, I could never come up with the same interpretation of any poem or other work of art as my teachers, and theirs was the official line and ‘always right’. So I thought I was crap at it and forgot about it.

Intellectually I know now that art says what it says to you on a very personal level. But the damage was already done.

1stAngel: When did you first become interested in photography, specifically?

Antje: At about 14 years of age, because I soooo wanted to be like this girl at school who was so much prettier than me, and in a photography club.

Then again in 1993, when I started a course in b&w photography to get over a really bad relationship breakup. He was a musician, and somehow I found it much harder to get over the loss of art in my daily life than it was to get over him. So I decided I would start making my own.

Drinking Water Container

1stAngel: In what other forms of art do you also work, if any?

Antje: Erm, figure skating? Cooking. And Baking!

1stAngel: On which style(s) of photography do you specialize?

Antje: Street photography. I am not very good at staging shots - well, I haven’t tried, really - but I am getting darn good at seeing a nice situation develop and getting the camera out of the bag quickly!

1stAngel: Has your style changed from when you first began? If so, why?

Antje: It hasn’t in the sense that I still take images of what catches my imagination. What has changed is my technique, of course, and level of skill, so the resulting pictures are very different.

I still really prefer black and white, for example, although these days I find it near impossible to get completely rid of colour!

I also try much more these days to get to the point of my pictures without explaining the where, why, or when of the situation within the image. Some information is unnecessary and distracts the viewer, and what’s missing always engages the imagination more than what is in plain sight. The secret is to know how much data to provide so the viewer has all the clues he/she needs to find the rest. I’m still working on that.

1stAngel: What kind of equipment do you use?

Antje: These days I work with digital exclusively. A Nikon Coolpix 8800 for serious stuff, a Sony Cybershot T100 for on the road. PaintShopPro for editing. Much less polluting but I miss the smell of the chemicals on my hands.

Escaping

1stAngel: What made you choose that equipment?

Antje: I chose digital because I knew I would never get my own darkroom. The Nikon because it has 8 Megapixel and rear curtain flash synch, my make-or-break criterion when choosing kit. At college I had to take a position in the Canon-vs-Nikon debate at some stage, and I chose Nikon’s sturdiness over Canon’s slight technological edge. I am very practical, you see.

I got the Sony because a friend had one at a party and asked me to take some pictures of him, and I loved how it worked, the big screen and it’s compact size.

But really, I would love to have a Nikon D300 with lots of lenses and a powerful flash… and someone to lug it all around for me. Well, we can dream…

1stAngel: How do you choose what you’re going to photograph?

Antje: It is usually something that I notice out of the corner of my eye that stops me in my tracks and makes me think: Get that camera out, NOW!

Roses ll

1stAngel: What kind of editing do you perform on your photographs, if any?

Antje: It depends on the image. I start usually with seeing what the image looks like in b&w. I pretty much always adjust curves due to the low contrast ratio of digital sensors. I like to work with my very own modification of the Orton effect, just to make the images glow a little from within.

Other than that, I go by what the picture demands.

On this note let me stress that what I do on the computer is nothing else than what I used to do in the darkroom. It’s the same skill of extracting the most from your negative, not some cheap ‘manipulation’.

1stAngel: How much time (on average) does it take to complete a work?

Antje: That is very hard to say as sometimes I do lots of different versions or rework images I did long ago, but it doesn’t take less time than in the darkroom, really. So three or four really good images in one session. After that my brain goes mushy, anyway.

1stAngel: How do you know when a piece is finished? Is it easy to walk away?

Antje: An image is finished when I am happy with every aspect of it. It is easy to walk away then, for the time being. However, once I have learned a new technique, I might go back and ask myself: How could you ever have been happy with it the way it is? But I try not to touch old images anymore as they document my progress in my craft, and there are enough new ones to keep me busy.

So Proud Of You

1stAngel: What do you do to overcome a “block”?

Antje: I simply don’t touch my camera until I feel the urge again.

1stAngel: How well do you take criticism and how do you make use of it?

Antje: When I am very certain of an image, I don’t care what people say. When I am not absolutely sure, I get very touchy and protective of my work.

I may grudgingly go into a direction someone has pointed me in but only after intellectualising it and agonising over it and making it mine. If someone points nobody in particular in a certain direction, I am much more willing to explore.

1stAngel: Who is your favourite artist?

Antje: Going by what I have on my walls, it would have to be me…

But seriously, at the moment it is Carlos Acosta, probably the greatest ballet dancer of our time. And my husband, a wonderful musician.

1stAngel: Which one of your photographs is your favourite?

Antje: That changes all the time. My favourites are usually my most recent pictures. But an all-time favourite is one of my sister and her son in our parents’ garden. She is the person closest to me because we can communicate without talking. Nobody else knows me this well but my husband is quickly catching up!

1stAngel: Have you exhibited any of your work in galleries?

Antje: Yes, I have. Although not on the highest possible level yet.

Walk In The Park

1stAngel: Will your work be included at any upcoming contests or galleries? If so, where and when?

Antje: An image of mine has been included in the German Photographic Society’s annual exhibition for the second year running. It opens on 3 May in Berlin and will then tour through Germany for a year. I’ll be there with my family.

In September I will have my own exhibition in my local library’s art gallery.

The Peruvian Embassy in London is sponsoring an exhibition of Peruvian architecture and ex-pat architects. They are interested in including some of my images of Lima.

1stAngel: What are your plans for the future?

Antje: I will actively try to get into more exhibitions. I’ll enter any serious competition that will have me. And I’ll do more exercise, promise!

1stAngel: What advice do you have for budding photographers?

Antje: Learn the basics first. You can break the rules once you know which ones, how and what for.

Excellent advice from an excellent photographer! Thank you Antje for a great, illuminating interview

You can visit Antje’s other great work at www.holdthatgallery.co.uk and www.antje-b.imagekind.com