Interview

Feb 13

Oliver Hadji

Oliver was born in Hamburg Germany in 1965. He started as an assistant in photo studios in 1981. Four years later, he moved to Paris. His first work for Stern magazine was in 1986. A few years later, he moved to New York. In 1994, he moved to Hamburg. Oliver has had several exhibitions and continuous work for magazines, theatres and commercial customers as well as workshops on portrait photography.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“My father was a manager in the photographic industry and my mother, a manager in a Japanese Fashion Designers Headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. Through these two presets, I was introduced to photography and arts / fashion at an early stage of my life. I started photographing at the age of 16 and continued to do so until now. My career started as an assistant to very good photographers and led to studio management at some point. I moved to Paris and worked there for a year while getting connected to the theatre and actors world in both Germany and France. When meeting one of my most influential and supporting people, movie director Eberhard Fechner, I started working in portrait photography for famous Stern magazine in the late 1980’s. From there, my career took a boost and I was working as a free lance photographer for many magazines in Germany, such as Tempo, Der Spiegel, Madame, Petra, Vogue to name a few. In the early 1990’s, I moved to New York City and was able to continue my work and expand to US magazines as well.”

What inspires you?

“I am inspired by beauty and thoughtful settings in photography and art. The respect shown by the artist towards the subject is one of the most important issues in a good piece of art. No matter if it is painting, acting, photography or poetry and music. At least, that is the case for me. Since I feel most comfortable in portrait photography, I look for interesting expressions and settings rather then big technical influence on the images. To find either a great set up to underline the specifics of the person or to simplify the setting is always a great challenge and inspires me a lot. I find my inspiration in magazines galleries and museums. Of course, the influence of movies is very big for me and I assume all photographers. Many movies have great camera people and light designers and they can influence a lot. The same goes for theatre sometimes.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“I care a lot about people, architecture and landscapes. I really admire great and influential fashion like Yamamoto and Miyake as well. The one on one situation in a portrait setting is very intimate and special I really like to work like that. The same goes for architecture and landscapes since they are not so hectic and honestly my creative options are much higher. The only underlying in my work is the sense for respect and the sense for beauty. Being respectful with people, and anything is the most important thing to be a human.”

“I care a lot about people, architecture and landscapes.”

How would you describe your work?

“I am trying to find an essence a culminating point of the person or object I am working with. Of course, it is what I see or I wish what should be seen. Usually there is some technical set up for the creation, but it is during the shooting and not in a postproduction. The respect is key and my approach of communication with my counterpart.”

Which artists influence you most?

“Well, I can say for sure Irving Penn. He was the biggest influence on my love for photography. The respect he has shown to the people and objects he photographed is unbelievable. I also admire the work of Annie Leibovitz. Her creativity is insane. Furthermore there are Gerhard Richter, Wim Wenders and Robert Wilson. Of whom I had the honor to photograph two and hoping for the third. The beauty of Wilsons set design, light, movements and music, as well as the choice of plays is outstanding. The variety and change and deep intelligence of the work by Gerhard Richter fascinates me a lot. I love, same as in Penn’s work, that he is not only committed to one style but changes styles and technics so often and shows, exactly like Penn his mastery in all different technics and styles. Wim Wenders’s movies influenced me from the very beginning his love for his characters and the unbelievable love for details and photography is absolutely fascinating.”

What is your creative process like?

“When I get an assignment, I start to gather information about who or what I am about to photograph. I seek inspiration from art books and collect ideas until a new image starts to build in my head. Then, I collect the props and the location and then I start the shooting. The postproduction in my case is mostly very small issues and minor changes. When I was an assistant, I used to work for a photographer who taught me to work as close to the best possible image you can so there is little need to go to do a lot of darkroom work. Honestly, I would rather take pictures and not sit in front of a computer.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“I feel the artists should always take the benefit of their time advantage over say nine-to five-job-people and use it for reflecting. In case of politically working artist about what influence their work might have and in which way they want to influence, for others what impact the beauty of something might have. In case of my work, I see my role to bring some beauty and respect in the minds of people who look at my pictures. If people see that and understand that it is important and the base for a peaceful togetherness, then its a great result.”