I was born in 1978 and grew up in Krün, a small town in the middle of the German Alps. From a young age I explored the mountains, their wildlife and their people. After training as a carpenter, the next logical step for me was to complete the IFMGA/UIAGM certification as a mountain guide at the age of 21, as I still work all over the world. Having been a member of the local mountain rescue team for over 30 years, I have become more risk-aware and can therefore cope very well with exceptional situations.
I started taking photographs at the age of 14 with my father's Minolta and with my first wages bought a LEICA R5, although there was no money for more than the 50mm Summicrom lens. Until I became a father of 4 wonderful children at the age of 28, I made thousands of slides and sold them to travel agencies, archives and private customers. In the years that followed, I concentrated on my young family and photography completely took a back seat. A serious skiing accident in 2022 and the resulting recovery time meant I had enough time to learn about digital photography and its tools, something I had completely missed out on in recent years.
After some research, I decided on the SONY ALPHA R product line and was excited about the development of autofocus and other technical possibilities. The more I was confronted with the digital world, the more impressed I was by the skills of earlier analog nature photographers, who captured a fast-moving animal in razor-sharp images without autofocus. I'm currently working with the Sony Alpha R 4.
My goal is to “produce” images, not just take them. I love planning photo opportunities and transferring my ideas into the real world. In the future I would like to focus on storytelling, which should come easily to me based on my life experience and contacts.
Georg SCHWARZENBERGER 