About me

Photography is my big, big passion

My first photograph I took when I was 12, my first camera I got when I was 14 years old. Up from my first shot, I loved it to "freeze" moments by "saving" them inside a picture. Today photography has got much more than that to me - today it is all about telling stories, creating art.

In my first years of photography, I didn't care about any rules of composition, I just enjoyed the moments of taking pictures. But after a while I started to understand that all the metnods of art, which I knew already very well from my childhood, from the paintings of my grandfather, hanging on the walls of my parent's house as well as on those of my grandmother, also work in photography.

When I was 21 years old, I had not much leisure time, because I worked as programmer in a company and simultaneously I studied informatics and founded my own company for IT & marketing. Through the lack of time I came totally away from photography in the year 2001 and with the time I forgot my youth passion.

In 2015 there was a big change: My 15 years old son had a photography basic course at school and he felt in love with it from the first moment. I remembered the great time when I was in that same age and influenced through him, I started this fantastic hobby again.

Today, photography helps me to come down after a hard working week or after a hard day. It helps me to relax and fills up my whole energy reserves. It is so fantastic to walk around, find awesome places, work on compelling stories and compositions, to convey mood with my images, to evoke emotions at the viewers.

But also during these years of abstinence, photography was always present, albeit in a different way: During this time I showed many photographers and designers, especially in the advertising and at website/webshop layouts, how to lead the viewer into a picture or design (also both combined) - how to direct the viewer's gaze to where it is beneficial for the purpose of the photograph or the graphic - for example, to arouse curiosity, to provoke inquiries or to place an order. Photography has always been my faithful companion.

How I work

I worked hard to get my photography better, I studied rules, do's and dont's, I strived for perfection. But finally I realized, that there is much more potencial for expression, for "saving" my feelings while taking a picture, when I allow "unperfection" to myself. This is why I love it to break rules. For me, there are actually no rules in photography, I see them rather as known methods how a picture could work. Although I built my own rule set, partly based on all the experience I have with the paintings of my grandfather, I never let limit my creativity through any kind of rules. For me unperfect pictures are even more alive, they are more authentic. So technology is not so important for me, my focus is much more at the mood I want to convey and the story I want to tell.

With the time more and more people asked me to get my images as prints. In the first time I was not interested, because I wanted my beloved hobby to stay as a hobby, although it was tempting to get my works out into the world, to people who are interested in interpreting my pictures. I feared, that a commercialisation could stop my freedom in photography, to photograph whatever I want. But then I found a way through defining my iron photography principles (look below). Since then I offer some of my best works (my opinion) as FineArt and limited edition prints.

And that's what I do: I "save" emotions into my pictures and let everyone be a part of that great feeling I had by myself.

My iron photography principles

1) Photography must stay my hobby, independend on selling prints and giving workshops. I want always to photograph what I love, nobody should tell me what I should photograph and how. I never will take pictures just to sell them. I am more happy with a really great picture which I didn't sell than with a bad picture, which I had sold hundrets of times. I stay photographing for me.

2) Just offer pictures, which I absolutely love by myself and I am really convinced of.

3) Don't put too much emphasis on my gear, concentrate more to the composition and the mood I want to convey.

My affinity to art

Lots of my relatives have been great artists. My great-great granduncle Gustav Klimt (6th degree) for example, was a famous Austrian painter. I am sure, you know a lot of his fantastic works. My great-grandfather Heinrich Irmler was the physical carpenter of emperor Franz Josef - emperor of Austria, king of Hungary - he designed and produced many of the imperial furniture. My grandfather Helmut Irmler teached art and was a known homeland painter in the Austrian Ausseerland and Salzkammergut.

Photography has many parallels to painting. For me it is a modern way of art, to interpret the environment, but especially to convey emotions. It is not enough for me just to take a nice picture. For me only the mood and the emotion, but especially the story, makes a picture to art.

Christian Irmler