The Power of Photos in Journalism

Berlin, March 2022

It is not only the right picture’s choice but also the responsibility and sensibility to NOT show specific images. Respecting ethical boundaries, using a certain know-how to recognize which one is the capturing image to become a symbol for an important topic, an era or an emotion. Whether representing politics, economy, daily news, sports, art and culture…..or the horror of war.

There are images in our head that will never ever be forgotten. They create emotions which are important for us to distinguish the right from the wrong and their intention is to make us react, take initiative in whatever possible form and ideally change something in society. Or simply to inform. And, unfortunately, get overwhelmed or blunted by the mass of data made accessible in the world wide web. Not only since digitalization but also in analogical times, photos have left big impressions or at least proofs for something that occurred in the past. Big loud themes but also small and silent stories. Mostly to be found in archives, agencies or private collections. And this is another aspect of a photo editor‘s job: to research and dig deep. Another one is the illustration of abstract contents. One needs to carefully read the text and search for the appropriate image which shows the essence of the text. That should be more sophisticated, filled with smart creativity but always simple enough to be understood from the word go by everyone. Either with humour or a twinkle in the eye.

Since early teenager days, I already wanted to become a journalist. Reading Oriana Fallaci and Norman Mailer, encouraged my idealism, my search for righteousness and great hunger for knowledge.

The older I became, the more stupid and incapable I felt. Incapable of fulfilling the requested skills for this highly admired profession. I had no idea about writing nor capturing the essence of a topic in brief sentences with the perspective of a bird‘s eye-view.
Therefor, in my early 20ties, I decided to start journalism through photography and began with an internship at the german weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. Ever since then, I have been working in photojournalism, both as a photographer and photo editor for many important newspapers, magazines and agencies.

Today, I am proud to be a team member of DIE WELT and WELT AM SONNTAG, feeling honored to work with such great journalists who damn well dominate their skills.