There is a mystery that begs to be solved within Andrea Peipe's visual tales. Shooting in the German landscapes around Munich, the photographer fills her audience with emotive pieces that evoke a deep sense of wanderlust and offer a connection to nature through the use of vast fields and forests as backdrops. Each photograph, presented as a piece of a much larger puzzle, uses color and strong poses to guide viewers–only those willing to tap into their own imagination–on a visual adventure. This self-taught creative's work is poetry with a rich narrative shining through in each quiet moment.
We were lucky enough to catch up with Andrea for our Behind The Lens look into her photography.
Tell us a bit about your journey into photography.
I started taking photos around the age of eight. Over the years, I had different kinds of cameras. In the beginning of 2010, I was going through a bit of a tough time, both at work and privately, and I was looking for a way to deal with my emotions. I started taking photos with a cheap-ish Canon point-and-shoot camera and soon realized that even though taking the photos helped me and was good for dealing with things, the quality of the pictures wasn't what I wanted. I became interested in Flickr after seeing an article featuring wonderful photos by a young American photographer named Anna Hollow. I wanted to see more of her so I joined Flickr–I actually still follow her and really like her photos! I uploaded a few pictures and after thinking about it for a long time, I finally decided to get a DSLR camera to improve my photography. My first DSLR camera was more of a beginners camera but I don't regret having started like that because it gave me the ability to grow with the camera and then switch to a better one once I felt I had outgrown it.
I started a 365 project, but was very annoyed and confused in the beginning because I wasn't getting the results I wanted and saw from other photographers that I started following. Of course that was due to the lack of knowledge and to a certain extent also due to the lack of a good lens. But, as you can see, I didn't give up and I went through my entire 365 project, working a lot on my photography, experimenting, and finally getting the hang of it after about a year and a half. While I started off with taking self-portraits, I got bored of seeing only myself in my photos, so I started taking pictures of others. I never really wanted to take just normal portraits and always felt it was much more interesting to come up with a story behind the image, to create a world that only existed in my head and to move the viewer with my pictures. In the beginning I didn't have the ability to change photos to how I wanted them to look in order to mirror the image I saw in my head. Photoshop can be quite a mystery when you don't know how to use it but thanks to a lot of tutorials, especially by Phlearn, I improved over the years and it became possible to put my ideas into practice most of the time. Nowadays, I hardly ever take a self-portraits anymore and much more enjoy taking pictures of others, while working in a team or by myself, depending on the concept.
What are some of your interests?
Other than photography, I love to travel! I try to travel as much as I can but it's not so easy because I've got a family and traveling generally costs quite a bit of money. I would love to travel more for my photography as well, but so far I mainly travel for fun! So far this year I've been to Slovenia and Portugal and just booked flights to South Africa for autumn. I'm also an avid reader and have been for all of my life. My third big interest would be food. That may sound funny but I originally wanted to become a chef when I was younger! I absolutely love cooking and anything to do with it, and I find it very meditative to work in the kitchen.
What's a must have in your gear bag?
My 50mm 1.4 lens! Ever since switching to full frame last autumn, I have been taking most of my photos with my 50 mm lens.
You are a natural storyteller, what keeps you inspired?
I cannot really explain what keeps me inspired. Sometimes, ideas just pop up in my head without any advance warning. I do often find myself inspired by locations in nature though. But for example for my series “My Secret Garden”,I have a general idea of what I want the pictures to look like and then it's a little bit easier to come up with additions to the series. I also often find myself inspired by people – I see somebody and that I know exactly what kind of a photo I want to create with that person. Other than that, inspiration can be found anywhere, for example during a conversation with my boyfriend or while watching a movie or when seeing a special light mood outside. Our life constantly changes and so with the addition of new things to our life or the removal of others, I find it somewhat easy to remain inspired.
What was the first photograph that really made you proud to be a photographer?
I cannot say anymore what the first photograph was that made me really proud but I've had several of those proud moments so far. The first time I went outside in the freezing cold to take a picture, the first time that I was out in the rain to take a picture, the first time I got up at the crack of dawn to take picture. But these are more photography moments that made me proud, not necessarily the resulting photos. As regards photos, I remember that my first expansion picture, my first underwater picture and my first time directing a creative team to achieve my desired result made me proud. Also the first time editing and creating a surreal picture that looked realistic made me proud. There are many of these little moments of pride that I've had over the years.
What is your favorite shooting location?
I was recently shown a park-like area outside of Munich which is very diverse – there is a lake that you can swim in, a forest area, a skateboard area and other things. At the moment, I love how different the parts of the park are and love using the different areas for different concepts. My photo “The Fluorescent Light of Day” was taken there for example. But I just generally love nature locations like forests and lakes. We have wonderful landscapes in Germany but without a car, it can be challenging to get to them.
What challenges have you faced while creating?
My city is very rich and clean and while there is a lot of nature in and around Munich, it can be difficult to find something a bit more rundown as an interesting backdrop. Abandoned houses are impossible to find because the ground here is expensive and abandoned buildings are almost immediately knocked down and built up again. I envy my photography friends in the States for having so many abandoned places and ghost towns all over the country because that is definitely not the case here. Sometimes during a meet up in another area, somebody knows an abandoned house and we go there but in my area it's impossible. I love the feel of abandoned houses and the history behind them and wish I could create stories with my photos in those places more often.
Can you tell us about these photography gatherings?
In 2012 I saw photos from that big Midwest Flickr Gathering and it made me yearn to do something like that over here in Germany. At that point, I hadn't met many photographers from Flickr yet, only three people and I was very interested in meeting others, especially from Germany. I started writing with a few people and suggested a meet up in Munich in autumn of that year. At first there were going to be quite a few people but then, one by one, they cancelled until there was actually only four of us left. We still held that meet up with just the four of us and even though it was only for a day, it was big fun! From that point on, we met several times a year, sometimes just two of us, sometimes three of us, and sometimes others joined us. And then other meet ups in Germany kind of snowballed from there, even though I wasn't part of most of them for family reasons. But every now and then I manage and that is always so wonderful! Spending time with fellow photographers, generally with fellow creatives is just so inspiring and really changes your view on photography, be it your own work or photography in general. There are a few meet ups planned for this year in Germany and I'm still considering if I can join or not. I would love to meet some of the people!
Take us through a typical day of shooting.
It totally depends on whether I'm shooting by myself or with the team. Last year I did a few series of photos with a team which was absolutely wonderful! In that case, on the day before the shooting, my intern who was working with me at that time, fetched the dresses for the shoot, which I had picked out together with him a week before, from a fashion school in Munich. I normally prepare a pretty strict plan for myself which shows very clearly the order of the photos I want to take so that I know exactly which dress goes with which make up, hair, pose, and location. Then I either prepare everything I need the day before the shooting or on the day itself if the shooting is only in the afternoon for example. In the case of the “My Secret Garden” series, it often took my intern and me weeks before the shoot to make all the props or sew the garments I wanted to use. So lots of preparation went into the shoot and that meant that there was of course lots to carry to the location. Then at the actual shoot, once we had carried everything to the location, we started with make up and hair and then gradually went through my ideas, changing dresses in between.
If I am shooting just by myself, then there is normally not so much preparation before the shoot. Of course it would be nice to always have an assistant but that just doesn't always work. And if you are just taking a certain kind of photo which doesn't really require any help, then it's fine like that. In that case I also prepare everything the day before or the day of the shoot, then meet up with my model either before or at the location and then, again, just go through my ideas one by one while changing clothes every now and then. There's normally not a lot of or any makeup and hair changes etc. involved because I'm rubbish at that and normally prefer a natural look anyways.
How much post-processing goes into a completed photo?
That very much depends on the photo! I always shoot in RAW and then edit in Lightroom and Photoshop CC. With more simple portraits, it can be anything from 15 minutes to half an hour. I then normally only tweak the colors and lights, do a light retouching when necessary, and maybe crop the photo. With more complicated pictures, where I might have to change something in the background, add something or change several things in the photo, it could be several hours or even a couple of weeks. For example, in the case of my photo “The Autumn King” it took me probably two weeks to finish it because there were so many things to change and little bits and pieces that I wanted to look a certain way. Almost every day, I did some editing, then waited for a day and then continued so that I had time in between to think about how I wanted it to end up looking.
Can you describe your dream shoot?
My dream shoot would be in a stunning nature location with female and male models interacting with live animals. This is one of the things that, as far as I know, you can only do with trained animals so it would be really difficult to realize without having access to those. I see images in my head of women in long dresses with birds on their shoulders, men with snakes around their ankles or couples being surrounded by deer. It would be an absolute dream to realize the images I see in my head!
What would be your dream location?
I would love to shoot in the ghost town Kolmanskop in the Namib desert. After the depopulation, sand invaded the houses and it looks so incredibly beautiful and surreal! Tim Walker had a shoot in the houses in 2011 and the photos are absolutely stunning! My boyfriend and I almost went there last summer when we were in South Africa but you need a permit to enter and I wouldn't have had a model with me so it didn't make so much sense going then. In order to fulfill that dream, it would require much more planning ahead.
If you could define your style, what would you call it?
I would say that my photos are dreamy, surreal and often show a world that only I see in my head. Since what I love most is creating a story in my images, I often explain that it is my style to create photos showing visual stories.
Do you have any advice for aspiring photographers?
My advice is to keep going, no matter what! There will be times when you will be frustrated with your work, when you feel uninspired and not good enough, when you compare yourself too much to others without believing in your own work. But you have to push past that point and keep going and realize that there's always going to be room to grow and you will always get better and in the end anybody can achieve their own dream. If your dream is to become a photographer, then go follow your dream!
Thank you so much Andrea! If you would like to see more of this creative photographer's work, check out her website and Facebook Page!
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