Interview with Kay von Aspern

My name is Kay von Aspern. I am from Schleswig-Holstein in the north of Germany and since 10 years I am living in Austria / Vienna. After a long time in IT business I was tired of it and I’m just starting a new career as a freelance photographer. Photography takes such a big place in my life so this is a logical step and I am very happy with this decision. I am taking pictures as long as I can remember, but more and more seriously since 2004.

I have always a camera with me. Most of my pictures are taken in Vienna. I need my accustomed environment to see the special und unusual actions and details in daily life. That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to take pictures at other places, but it needs some time before my eyes are acclimatized. In the beginning new places are a little bit overwhelming to me, because of the amount of new impressions. For my kind of photography I need some time to get used to it.

Always. When I started with so called street photography I preserved time for photowalks and tried to be concentrated in that time. After a while this behaviour changed totally. I am nearly always concentrated when I am walking outside in public space. There is no special preserved time for me anymore. It could be always the right time for a picture and It’s impossible to organize this. In every moment things happen in front of me.

I am open for everything. This could be a situation in which people are directly involved, an animal, an event, plants, a stone, advertisement, lines, shapes, colours, whatever. I like it if elements in a photo communicate with each other. I am not interested in specialize my perception for a certain kind of motive. I am interested in combining fragments and details, lines with shapes, people with humorous or surreal moments, disturbing situations etc. This is what I enjoy.

It’s like a positive constraint or an inner voice. There is no day without photography. It makes me think about the world I live in. Sometimes in a positive way, sometimes the opposite.