6 QUESTIONS TO DAVID SZUBOTICS

Can you tell us a little bit about how you became a photographer? And tell us something about your pictures.

Since I was a kid, I've been passionate about music and enjoyed spending my time painting and drawing. Looking back, this early involvement with art may have later paved the way for me to become a photographer. At some point, I got the opportunity to combine my interest in music and photography and started working as a concert photographer. For several years I attended countless concerts, accompanied bands on their tours through Europe and documented their work in the studio.

Around 2017, another photographic genre piqued my interest and I started focusing on portraits and bodies - especially hands. Shortly after, I switched to analog photography and found that film was the medium I felt most comfortable and inspired with. Although I have a completely different professional background, I was offered a job as a photographer at a fashion online store, where I worked for four years. When I finally moved to Hamburg, where I now live, I started working for an equipment rental company for professional photo and film productions.

Over the years I've been fortunate to come into contact with many wonderful artists, photographers and people. The photography community has become such an important part of my life. Through photography I have found true friends, inspiration, valuable connections and lots of support.

Photo: David Szubotics

Please share something about your images. What is your special interest? How do you choose colors, composition, subjects, etc. ?

I always take a very similar approach to photography. Personally, I find it hard to work with complete strangers, so I usually take portraits of friends or people I've been talking to for a while. I feel more comfortable then and the transition from the conversation and getting to know each other to the actual photographing is more natural. Music has always been (and still is) my main source of inspiration - I like to use it to put myself and the person I'm portraying in a certain mood.

I prefer to work indoors, usually in the homes of the people I photograph. It's always exciting to work in a different but personal environment, and I often take inspiration from the furnishings or the space. Even though I've tried a lot with artificial lighting, natural light is always my favorite. A window, no matter how small, creates beautiful shadows and provides me with the light I need for my photos.

Technically, I underexpose my films by one stop and push them during the developing process. This way I achieve stronger dynamics, sharper contrast and intense depths. Most of the time I work with black and white film, occasionally with color film. For a few years now, film prices, especially for color film, have skyrocketed so much that I bought a digital medium format camera. I have tried a lot and for a long time until I like the look I apply digitally just as much as when I shoot on film.

Photo: David Szubotics

Where does this interest come from?

I like it simple and structured in life, but there should always be "that certain something". That's how I see it in my pictures, simple structure, simple and simple light, without too much frills, simple poses. So that it works in the end in my eyes also interesting, always comes a small change. Be it a certain posture of the hand, an averted gaze, differently placed light, a different image composition, changed posture or the introduction of objects.

What inspires you? And what do you get inspired by? Movies, books or magazines? Or what surrounds you?

Of course other photographers or artists inspire me, no question, but music and the spatial conditions on location have a big influence on it.

My girlfriend (Felicitas Schwenzer) and I often photograph together and try out many things. We inspire each other and I am very happy and grateful that we can share photography together. I don't really deal with a theme or an idea in advance, mostly everything comes out of the moment that arises that way. Be it a simple pose or a posture while talking to each other, in between an idea can emerge from it, on which everything else gradually builds and develops.

Photo: David Szubotics

Here is a very small selection of photographers and artists who inspire me and have a great influence on me: Felicitas Schwenzer, Catia Simões, Shannon Tomasik, Hannes Caspar, Chantal Convertini, Ryan Muirhead, Nanne Springer, Phil Sharp, Nirav Patel, Laura Makabresku.

What are your plans for the rest of the day?

For once, enjoying a very simple and cozy Sunday on the couch with my girlfriend and our four cats, listening to music of course - just being lazy and having nothing to do, that's where inspiration always comes from.