The Miami Art Blog by Heike Dempster

My name is Andrea Peipe, I am 32 years old and I live in Munich, Germany. I am a fine art and portrait photographer, but I don't like to limit myself to that because there are so many fields in photography that I find interesting and fascinating. Other than that, I love writing, traveling, meeting new people and getting to know other cultures. Photography is a huge part of my daily life because I have my own business and enjoy working in that field at lot.

I had an early start and became interested in photography when I was quite young. It feels like I always had a camera of some sorts although I didn't start shooting with film until I was 12 years old when my parents gave me a camera for my birthday. However, when I started really getting into photography in the beginning of 2010, I knew very little about photography itself and nothing about how to handle a DSLR. Photoshop was something that I had heard about but never tried. It was a hard journey sometimes, learning all there is to learn about photography, editing, and lighting. What really helped me understand photography was doing a 365 project, which I started two days after I bought my first DSLR. I learned so much as a result, mainly because I had to! Every day I would discover something new or see photos of other people that made me wonder how they had been taken. About halfway through my 365 project, I decided to quit my regular job at a law firm because photography was what I had always wanted to do. I never studied to become a photographer or took courses in photography. Instead I read books, magazines and online articles, watched tutorials and went out and discovered photography by experimenting and having fun. For more than three years now, photography has been part of my daily life and I think there have only been a few days when I didn't spend some time of the day taking photos, editing or thinking of ideas and sketching them.

I guess, my photography is defined by my passion and drive for perfection. I have to say though that I find it hard to define my photography because I feel that I am too close to the images I create. I just want to create images that evoke emotions in my viewers, move them and make them think.

The ideas for my photos are often triggered by dreams or songs, by a conversation or a memory, a scene in a book or a story somebody tells me. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and find myself thinking about a specific idea and I cannot really figure out where it even came from. Sometimes I just start sketching something in my sketch book that wasn't in my head a minute before. I find darker images quite fascinating and I like to provoke people's imagination but I also like to create lighter, somewhat happier images. While I do appreciate well-done portraits, my real passion lies in creating images that are somewhat surreal and show something that often not possible in real life, like levitation for example. At some point I would like to create a whole series of levitation images - women, men, children and/or whole families floating in mid air.

I generally prefer working in natural light to working in a studio or using speed lights. I like the way you can incorporate different seasons or moods of the day into photography and by doing that, create a unique image. Unlike studio light, the light outside and the weather changes everyday and you have to be able to work with it. On a darker cloudier autumn day, your images will be darker and moodier while on a sunny and bright summer day, your images will end up lighter and happier. I particularly like to use lakes, rivers or the ocean because I love the motion of water and the different tones of blue and green in it. Over the years, I have taken photos in all kinds of weather and find each season has their advantages. The crisp and clean white snow that has just fallen can be equally beautiful to an early sunrise on a meadow full of dew in summer. I generally find it more interesting to use locations in nature like mountains or the ocean than shooting in a studio with different backgrounds. Of course, that kind of photography has its good sides too but nature just appeals to me more. Most of the ideas I have or the sketches I draw have to do with nature or an element of nature.

I would say that depends a bit on the photo. If it is one of my brighter, happier photos, I would like the viewer to feel happy or even carefree and it would be great if my photo maybe even made that particular person smile and have a wonderful day. If it is a darker image or one that contains some surreal or mysterious elements, it would be great if it made people think. I would like it if my photo made them wonder how a certain effect was achieved or what the meaning behind the concept was. I have experienced that people view a photo differently and it triggers different emotions in them. It doesn't really matter to me what emotions are evoked in another person, as long as my photos touch them in some sort of way.

In October 2011 one of my photos was short listed in the category “Professional Photo” for a competition and hung in galleries in Berlin, London and Paris as part of a group exhibition. That was my first exhibition and I was more than thrilled about it although it was also a completely surreal feeling seeing my own photo hanging on the wall of a gallery. Exhibiting three photos at the Urban Art Fair STROKE in Munich last summer was also very exciting because of the huge amount of people looking at my photos and giving me immediate feedback. In May 2012 two of my photos were chosen as book covers. When one was published I bought it and seeing my name on the back of the cover was absolutely surreal as well. And when the Italian Vogue chose my first photos to put on their website last summer, that was completely mind-blowing to me. Even now that I have had more exhibitions, book covers and photos on websites, I still feel very excited and happy when that happens!

I would love to do a photo shoot for a well-known magazine! Something that includes a lot of crazy props - maybe even live animals like elephants or large birds - as well as dresses with lots of fabric or other extravagant clothing, jewelry and really great make-up, and which takes place in some exotic location. So far I have always worked with "normal" people like you and me, fellow photographers or amateur models and even though the people are great and I get good results, I am sure it would be such a great experience to work with a team of experienced people.