Dear Sebastian, thank you for taking time for an interview with us! We are happy to welcome you at HAZEGALLERY. Tell us please about yourself and your art.
Thanks for having me! My Name is Sebastian and I am a photographer and filmmaker who is interested in human life and collecting candid moments.
Where do you work and live and why did you choose exactly this place?
I live and work in Cologne, Germany. After spending my twenties in Berlin it’s great to be close to my hometown, again. Secondly, I do love the heterogeneity of North-Rhine Westphalia.
You combine different art languages to express yourself - photography, filmmaking and sound design. How did you come up with this approach?
Studying audio engineering brought me to release some electronic music. Following my interests by practical approach to motion picture sound, I was working as audiovisual media designer. The camera itself and taking pictures by myself always played a huge role in my life
from early childhood on. After working in the industry for almost 15 years I reconsidered to go back to my main intent - which is creating my own artworks.
What was the key influence that led to the development of your process and style?
Street photography surely means a lot to me. I enjoy observing my surroundings with all senses. The challenge to have fractions of a second to react before a certain moment is gone, tackles me most.
You have been working on documentary films, commercials and art projects. What do you like the most?
I enjoy being able to work in all of the three genres and I’m glad to gain inspiration from every project I’m working on.
Tell us please about the brightest and one of the most memorable projects you were working on.
One of the brightest and most memorable projects is the Bar25 movie. Shortly after my education this was the very first film I worked on as an assistant editor and I was responsible for 750 hours of priceless footage. Although the job of an assistant editor is not a very creative one, it was the exact moment when I learned about how important it is to capture and process certain moments. Nana Yuriko and Britta Mischer did an amazing job in carving out a docu-fairytale and I’m still very proud to be part of their small team.
What are the main sources of inspiration? Is your creation more spontaneous or do you prepare the ideas in advance?
The creation itself depends on the project. I absolutely love to create spontaneous and process impressions right after they appear. On the other hand I enjoy planning future projects and I love to carve through old material.
How would you define your personal aesthetics? Do you express your inner emotions and feeling through your art or the world outside?
I think both are related to each other. As an artist I process my surroundings and my works are depending on my inner emotions. This is one of the main reasons that I love about creating art works. The same subject can pour on me completely different depending on my emotions.
How has covid affected you and your art?
It was really frightening when the pandemic started and I realized that this event truly is able to change the world. Because the world around me stood still for a couple of weeks I started questioning my previous works. Retrospectively, my main goals were creating my own works rather than freelancing on other people’s projects.
How do you think the art world will shape in the future?
My guess is that the art world itself won’t change a lot. But because of new distribution channels, artists and galleries need to be more active online in order to reach customers.
What are your future artistic plans and ongoing projects?
My ongoing project is a video for my 'habitat' series that I’m shooting since the beginning of the pandemic. The main question is, what changes are visible in city life compared to country life.
Instagram Sebastian Steimel @seb_steimel