Luca Gaidus for TUSH

I CAN’T KEEP STILL

I have to implement my ideas whenever they come to mind. Working on free projects is important to me. It's like a finger exercise between commissioned work and a comparison of reality between jobs.

Intelligence

Human intelligence combined with creativity can lead to incredible results – for example, the invention of artificial intelligence. For me, AI is a tool to complement my photography. However, it only works in conjunction with a relevant image statement, and only when I can decide what the result looks like. When AI analyses Nadja Auermann's facial features, the otherworldly beauty becomes an extraterrestrial being. Not "promts" – words from which AI generates images – were the basis of this composing, but Nadja's face. AI did not create the image, but provided this idea for it.

Joachim Baldauf, German fashion photographer, publisher, lecturer and creative director.

Passion

Even as a child, I was fascinated by all kinds of religions. Rituals and icons, songs and prayers have always had a great effect on me. As an adult, I'm more critical now, but still impressed. Photographing the actors of the Oberammergau Passion Play was a dream that has come true. Rarely have I had such expressive actors in front of the camera. What more could a photographer ask for?

Zeitsprünge

Some projects come about by chance. When I first got a glimpse of Dorothea Mink's fashion archive, it was clear to me: I definitely want to do something with it. In cooperation with Dorothea Mink, Christian Popkes, PHOTOPIA and LEICA, this exhibition finally came about.

Fashion collage with three models wearing bold outfits against vibrant backgrounds, accompanied by text: 'The most sustainable fashion is well designed fashion.'

Don’t blame me

We are billions of people who all look, think and feel differently. Luckily we are all individuals. A good reason to show that and say it out loud: Don’t blame me for being an individual. I'm a philanthropist and that's why portrait photography is probably my passion. For this series, over 100 people were photographed as part of three happenings. These photos were presented in LEICA'S LFI MAGAZINE and as a pop-up exhibition in Munich.

Black and white portrait of a bald man with a large beard and hoop earring, wearing a denim jacket. The text reads: "Don't blame me for being cultivated."

Black and white portrait of a man with styled hair, wearing a dark coat and turtleneck. Text overlay: "Don't blame me for being a supermodel."

ART SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT LIBERATES YOUR SOUL, PROVOKES THE IMAGINATION AND ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO GO FURTHER.
- Keith Haring

Someday you will miss me

A series of images as a photographic confrontation with erotic innuendo in religious paintings – a topic that touches and challenges me again and again.

Close-up black and white photo of a man's face with eyes closed and mouth open, hands gently cradling his face and neck.

Sandra Treydte

When you have known a model and soul mate for over 20 years there is always something special in the air during a shooting and it feels safe and familiar. Together you can create something special because you don’t have to prove anything.

A person wearing a white headscarf is looking away, with a blurred background of greenery.

Person wearing a long white dress with a translucent plastic covering over their head, standing barefoot on grass in a garden setting.

Emerenz

Emerenz was a Munich-based one season fashion brand that was dedicated to creating awareness for a cultural shift to a slow fashion perspective and regain consciousness for a more sustainable and refined quality of handcrafted pieces.

The brand identity was not only defined by the best quality of materials it uses, but on its understanding of design and focus on the beauty of uniqueness with every piece crafted on demand in Bavaria and embodying a story of its own.

In these times of mass production and poor working conditions in the fashion industry, Emerenz seeked to harken back to the Arts and Crafts movement, which valued craftsmanship and a certain ethic of production.

For me this project was a creative flashback to my education as a textile designer.

Black-and-white portrait of a bearded man wearing a dark knit hood, with a brown background.

Black and white portrait of a bearded man wearing a textured knit hat, with text "Wild Heritage. Emerenz."

Superlative

Politics and advertising often communicate with superlatives that have little to do with reality. This campaign, which emerged after Trump came to power the first time, satirises election campaigns.

Fabrik

This personal work with Eva Padberg as the protagonist deals with the stereotype of the twentieth-century female factory worker and her struggle for financial sustenance and the exploitation of industrialization in a film that was never filmed.

Black and white portrait of a person with a distressed expression, wearing a headscarf and a jacket, with a mark on their cheek and hands.

Homo Nemus

If your brother is a gardener, florist and flower artist, it makes sense to realise ideas with him. And it is fun!

Side view of a shirtless person with their face covered in moss.

Beards

I always was fascinated by beards. Of captains, pirates, apostles, mountain men and philosophers. Of adventurers and intellectuals. And when I heard that there was a beard world championship, I went there immediately with my camera and photographed a series of extraordinary men with extraordinary beards.

Bearded man wearing a captain's hat with a black background.

Man with long gray beard wearing a traditional Bavarian hat with a feather on a black background.

Unwiederbringlich

Irretrievable. A screenplay, a photographic essay, a film that was never made. November 12, 1989. It's the Sunday after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Christine and Helmuth get into a conflict about their future.

I had the story and the screenplay stills in mind and was able to implement it with Eva Padberg and Michael Gwisdek.

Qvest magazine published the script and the images.

Collage of black and white images of an emotional interaction between a man and a woman. They share intimate expressions, with the woman often looking distressed and the man comforting her. Text in German accompanies the images.

Black and white photos showing a man and woman in various emotional scenes, including sitting together, embracing, and talking in a domestic setting. The woman is seen sitting pensively at a table with bottles in the background. The collage includes text credits for directors, costumes, music, animation, and locations.

Players

I am always impressed when I can discover new sides of people in front of my camera. Lena Gercke and Constantin von Jascheroff show themselves here from a completely new perspective.

Person with short blonde hair wearing red dress and dramatic makeup

Smoke

The music video for SMOKE by DAPAYK & PADBERG is inspired by a night drive past the Leuna industrial area in East Germany. The video is a hybrid of photography and film and captures the feeling of driving by.

They love Vinyl

I have worked with Eva Padberg as a model umpteen times. For her music project Dapayk & Padberg, which she started together with her husband Niklas, I shot also record cover sleeve images.

Black and white photo of a person with straight blond hair partially covering the face, with a hand placed over the face.

Der subjektive Mann

I started the long-term project THE SUBJECTIVE MAN in 2002 with an exhibition in the same year and a book with male portraits and nudes in 2006. First I was looking for male photography that is more authentic, then realizing that it was much more than that, because we talked and opened up during the shootings. Virtually photography with a psychoanalytic side effect to discover male identity.