AN INTERVIEW WITH NYC BRONCOLOR FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER THORSTEN ROTHPublished in blog.bronimaging.com, Jan, 2010 I started taking pictures early on, around the age of 12. For both, my father and grandfather photography was a hobby. My grandfather was actually a serious amateur-film-geek. So I grew up with Super 8 and started to film occasionally on trips and family vacations when I was eleven years old. I loved the medium but wanted more control and I found that photography was the field to be in. By the time I was thirteen I bought my first camera and grated up to a Nikon FE two years later due to a school workshop. I had my first exhibition of street-portraits when I turned sixteen. I think I fell in love with being in charge and overcoming certain personnel boundaries. It was exciting! | I remember very well one of the key-moments that I had at the age of fifteen - on T.V. I was watching a documentary about Oliviero Toscani shooting and creative directing for Benetton It just made click in my guts and I knew which direction I wanted to take. Ten years later (meanwhile I had graduated from one of the best Photo/Film/Design Schools in Germany, the FH Bielefeld and had moved to Paris right afterwards) I had the pleasure to assist Toscani on a two weeklong Benetton production in the renowned PIN UP Studios. For me it was a dream coming true, just like walking on clouds. And then again very funny coincidence, another 11 years later - I hadn't seen Oliviero for a long time, just a week before my move from Paris to New York I ran into him in a lab, we had a good laugh. Photographically he didn't really influence me that much but I admire his game in advertising - a real | psychological master: A) he's talking the gospel B) he always knows when and how to push the right buttons. I think Toscani is a genius in his own right; he has a great sense of humor, too. *laughs* Well, since my college-time I was shooting little ad-jobs and worked as a photojournalist for different papers. My technical foundation as a photographer I certainly acquired from my long time as an assistant - my first job in Paris was a freelance position at Condé Nast, working on VOGUE, VOGUE HOMME and GLAMOUR productions I worked with many of the big boys. At the beginning here in New York I free-lanced around like crazy and assisted for example Patrick Demarchelier for a couple of years. Later on I got around as a hired gun particularly because of my good knowledge of light. So make a long story short, I guess I can say without pretension that I learnt from the best. |