Blog
Travel stories and notes from the road. Older reports from Asia and Latin America, a few pieces on photography, and recent posts from the ongoing Panamericana trip.
Mercedes 814DA Conversion: From Fire Truck to Campervan
Converting a Mercedes 814 DA from fire truck to round-the-world camper. I built myself my dream overland vehicle. But the road to the finished rig was rocky and long, and took almost seven years. Now it's done, and my biggest adventure yet is beginning: down the Pan-American Highway from Canada to Patagonia.
Read post →
Sri Lanka - Travel Photography with the Leica M11
After a five-year break, my comeback with the Leica M11 – four weeks across Sri Lanka, from Colombo through the temples of Polonnaruwa to the green mountains of Ella. Standing for 7.5 hours on the panorama train, squeezed between three million tourists, for a whopping two euros. The people were incredibly warm, and shooting manually with the Leica forced me to take more time with every frame. Sri Lanka was exactly the right country to rediscover the joy of photography.
Read post →
All Roads Lead to the Leica M
From the Canon PowerShot A70 through the Fujifilm X-T2 and Sony A7 III to the Leica M11 – 25 years of switching cameras and learning that technology alone is not enough. The Sony had everything you could wish for, yet I lost interest in photography for nearly three years. It was the switch to the manual Leica M that brought back the joy. No autofocus, no endless menus, just ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. With the 35mm Summilux, it feels like I have pushed open a new door in photography.
Read post →
Interview for Edelweiss Airlines - Travel Magazine
Swiss airline Edelweiss Air promoted their new route to Ho Chi Minh City using my Vietnam photos and an interview in their travel magazine. The images came from my trip through Vietnam in February 2014, when I documented the country with my camera for three weeks. The interview and photos were published in the summer edition of the Edelweiss magazine. A lovely project and great recognition for the work, hopefully sparking wanderlust in many readers.
Read post →
FUJIFILM X-PRO 3 - Traveling in Sri Lanka
FUJIFILM Switzerland lent me the X-Pro 3 with the 14mm pancake lens for two weeks in Sri Lanka. A camera without a rear display sounds crazy, but after a short adjustment period it becomes genuinely addictive. You focus so much more on the moment and your settings instead of constantly checking the screen. After two weeks without chimping, I felt like I had taken a real step forward technically. It was the first time in years that a camera brought me this much joy.
Read post →
Latin America - Along the Andes
The final leg of my six months across Latin America – from Ecuador along the Andes through Chile and Argentina to the grand finale in Rio de Janeiro. The desert oasis of Huacachina, the Uyuni salt flats, the Death Road near La Paz, and the Iguazu Falls – beauty that takes your breath away around every other corner. Along the way, I met three guys from Germany and we ended up traveling together for over two months. Friendships that form naturally through shared adventures on the road.
Read post →
Colombia - Lush Green
Five weeks across Colombia, stumbling from one highlight to the next. The street art in Cartagena's Getsemani district was a feast for the eyes, and Medellin deeply impressed me with its transformation from the most dangerous city in the world to the most innovative. Add to that lush green hills stretching to the horizon, the 220-meter monolith of Guatape, and the wax palms of Salento. I would have happily stayed for good.
Read post →
Panama - A Study in Contrasts
I originally planned to just pass through Panama, but it turned into three weeks of whiplash-inducing contrasts. In Bocas del Toro, I visited the Ngabe community who live in simple wooden huts without electricity or running water – and seem more relaxed than anyone I know. Then came the culture shock of Panama City, where skyscrapers and traffic chaos hit me like a wall. The crowning finale was a five-day sailing trip through the paradisiacal San Blas Islands to Colombia.
Read post →
Costa Rica to Nicaragua - And the Thing About Travel Planning
My first month in Latin America went predictably off-plan. Hurricane Nate left me stranded for days without power in Santa Teresa, mudslides washed away the roads, and my bus rear-ended another vehicle in scorching heat. Instead of continuing to Panama as planned, I spontaneously flew to Nicaragua – and the country completely blew me away. Costa Rica disappointed me, too Americanized for my taste. Nicaragua, on the other hand, felt real, like Costa Rica must have been 15 years ago.
Read post →
Interview for World Photography Organisation
The World Photography Organisation interviewed me about my work as a street and travel photographer. The occasion was my top 50 placement at the Sony World Photography Awards 2017 with a photo from the port of Essaouira in Morocco. In the interview, I talk about how I got into travel photography and what fascinates me about the genre. It was a rewarding moment that showed me the passion and countless hours on the road actually pay off.
Read post →
Sony World Photography Awards 2017 - My Photo in the Top 50
My photo from the port of Essaouira made it into the top 50 of the Travel category out of 227,596 submissions from 182 countries and will be exhibited in London. A proud moment after nearly 20 years of photography that gave me a real boost. Since then, my work has been featured in SPIEGEL ONLINE, PASSION PASSPORT, and LONELY PLANET Magazine. That is why my most ambitious project yet is coming up in October – six months of travel photography across Latin America.
Read post →
Vietnam - Riders On the Storm
Three weeks in Vietnam's organized chaos – from Hanoi across half the country to the Mekong Delta. The motorbike ride over the Hai Van Pass from Hue to Hoi An was both breathtakingly scenic and hair-raising. But what impressed me most were the people. In the Mekong Delta, I met a 93-year-old woman who had never seen a photo of herself. When I showed her the picture, she nearly tipped out of her rocking chair with joy. Unforgettable.
Read post →
China - Traveling Against Clichés
Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong – and pretty much every cliche I had demolished along the way. The food was so unbelievably good that we sometimes ate hot meals five times a day. I still nurse my dumpling addiction to this day. In Shanghai, I became an involuntary celebrity in front of the Oriental Pearl Tower when a line of people formed wanting photos with me. China taught me that forming your own opinion beats believing what others tell you.
Read post →
Cuba - Watch Out for Potholes
Three weeks across Cuba by rental car – a country whose infrastructure is still stuck in the 1960s. On the way to Viñales, I picked up three stranded Cubans with their 60-year-old Chevy and was invited to a private tour of their tobacco plantation in return. The food consisted of dry rice and dry meat every single day. The unforgettable highlight was a 150-kilometer stretch near Baracoa that we conquered at 2 km/h in a pothole slalom through the jungle. The car was a rolling pile of scrap by the end.
Read post →
Mexico - Dances with Crocodiles
Three weeks across Mexico's Yucatan with a detour to Belize. From breathtaking cenotes where I screamed my way down a 20-meter plunge, past Mayan ruins, to the paradise of Caye Caulker where I ate the best seafood of my life. In Bacalar, I happily swam around a lake – not knowing the waters are famous for their crocodiles. Luckily, my face was already so red from sunburn that nobody could tell I was blushing.
Read post →
USA - Of Karma and Disco Fries
Eleven days across the States – with buddy pass flights for 50 dollars from New York to Chicago and on to Miami. The portions were absurdly huge, breakfast at Lou Mitchell's was divine, and Chicago turned out to be a real architectural surprise. The highlight was a near-fatal moment at the Crown Fountain, where I stood obliviously in the water basin and completely missed the second water-spewing wall behind me. My karma account saved me at the very last second.
Read post →