fotoMagazin EDITON 2020

In this country, Florian Froschmayer is known and successful as a director and screenwriter. However, the filmmaker, who lives in Berlin and Los Angeles ("Tatort", "Coast Guards", "SOKO 5113"), has also had a strong connection to photography since his early filmmaking days. 

Decades back, he was asked to submit a screenplay idea as a scenic photo story for his entrance examination to the film academy. The then 23-year-old taught himself the craft with aperture experiments and a Coke-can as a model. "I first learned to take photos manually," the Swiss recalls. Since those days, the medium has fascinated him, and today he carries a digital camera with him every day. Froschmayer is still relatively new to the world of photographic art. "The pictures in this portfolio have something very intimate for me because mostly I was traveling without company when I took these pictures. I made up all these moments with myself alone," he says. 

The 48-year-old globetrotter says he doesn't feel compelled to tell a story when he takes pictures. Sometimes the structure of a picture is enough for him. So his pictures tell us a lot about order and chaos, silence and noise, and how apparent opposites sometimes come together harmoniously. This is not only about specific topographies but also about the structures of everyday life and the constantly re-presenting framework of the world. "I associate these photos with smells, moods, and often even a certain temperature.“ 

We can also find elements of Florian Froschmayer's visual aesthetics in his movies. "When shooting, I appreciate desaturated images more, I love the washed-out look. However, both in filming and in photography, I like to work with long focal lengths or extremely wide angles, and I also often interfere with the image composition on set. I have a preference for blurring in images." Central to his images is the lighting mood, Froschmayer analyzes. The light brings depth to the image and directs the structure, he says. When he visually directs and composes, he does so in the depth of the room, with the desire to intensify the sense of space. 

The photographer works intuitively and enjoys the fact that, for once, teamwork is not the main focus here: "I am drawn to things I have never seen before when I take pictures and show my view of the shapes and colors of the world. When I get home to my computer screen, I often discover all the beauty hidden in the details of the images. Photographs also help the director prepare his movies: "I take pictures when location scouting and then manipulate the images the way I'd like the later aesthetics of the movie to look." Interestingly, close-ups of strangers are rarely found in Florian Froschmayer's photos. He has a simple explanation for this: "I still shy away from addressing strangers. That's quite different during filming.“ 

original text by Manfred Zollner