Marc Pennartz

I often visit the north. I used to live in Sweden, lately a combination of work and pleasure periodically takes me to Stockholm. The last time was in December. It was the middle of winter, with temperatures of minus twelve during the day. Because humidity in Sweden is generally very low, it feels much less cold than you might think. But of course it is not California. I took this …

Photoshop, Lightroom and similar programs are today’s darkrooms. Just cheaper, more efficient and with a thousand extra features. It’s software that changed the world. With a side effect: more than ever we don’t know if the photographer saw through the viewfinder the same as we see in the picture. On Instagram I come across streets without dust, papers or cigarette butts every day. All has been meticulously photoshopped away by …

Sometimes you think that everything was different and better in the past. Until you discover that people worried about the same things 50 years ago as they do now. For example, education is always bad, unemployment is always too high, sales are always too low, teenagers are always spoiled by new media, and the world is permanently going to hell. So I don’t know if my lament of today is …

I am always grateful for that lonely soul out in the dark street, for the driver who bought a red car, for the cyclist with the flapping hair, for him or her who made the effort to dress elegantly…. No, I don’t ask them to step into my image, let alone drive into it. They are there entirely voluntarily, at times I do not select or determine. And our encounters …

Many photographers call themselves storytellers. I don’t. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. There is a protagonist, human or not, and there is conflict. If you take all this, you have a story. But it’s impossible to put all that into one photo. Therefore, one single photo can never tell a story, only a scene at best. If you make a series of photos that show …

I love it when everyday situations look unreal photographed. It won’t come as a surprise to those who know my work. My eye constantly searches for reflections and textures, unexpected contrasts and shadows when I’m on the street. Isolate them and you create an alternative reality. The beauty is that you can find such things everywhere, all the time. That’s what makes this kind of photography so cool. People experience …