It’s easy to get caught up in yourself. After all, you’ve got problems, relationships, challenges, and deadlines that nobody else knows about. You have to “do you,” and look out for your interests because no one else will do it for you. Right?
While it is true that you need to take time to build and develop yourself, it’s also very important to remember that other people are living lives. Other people have things they care about, and to them, they are the protagonists of their story.
It’s this individuality, this uniqueness about each person that Julius hopes to represent through his photography.
How it Started
Julius’s love for portraiture sort of snuck up on him.
“My interest in photography has only developed in the last few years, so I’d be lying if I said I always wanted to be one.”
His dream was to be a magician, but that gave way once he discovered the beauty of portraiture.
It all started with a couple of harmless vacation photos he took with his parents’ old camera. There was nothing special about those pictures. No great technique elevated them beyond any ordinary photograph, neither did it record any spectacularly shocking event. But for some reason, Julius just couldn’t get it out of his mind.
He wouldn’t realize why, until much later, when he got his camera to record personal moments, but instead, found himself capturing others.
“More and more, I realized people are my favorite subject.”
For Julius, there’s just something special about being able to record someone’s character and identity on film. To distill the essence of a person into a single photograph.
The Come up
But just because he liked taking pictures didn’t mean he was any good at it. And at first, there was a steep learning curve to overcome. Luckily, photography has never felt like work to Julius. “It eats up my free time, which I am only too happy to sacrifice for it,” he says to me.
He spent quite a bit of time learning the ropes and the theory behind photography. Here, he learned another interesting lesson that,
“theory does not equal practice.” “The only way to get better is to try things out and just do it,”
“You can hide behind theoretical ideas and rules forever or claim that your equipment is not good enough. But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how many pictures you’ve taken in the real world, and whether or not you’re engaged with them so that you can continue to improve in the future.”
Transitioning from purely theoretical to practical photography was difficult no doubt, and Julius credits his mentor, Danny Scähfer of Pretty Moments, for helping him adjust. He describes him as his “most important mentor over the past 3 years” who’s taught him “an incredible amount about the wedding industry and videography.”
Challenges
It wasn’t just smooth sailing for Julius from here on out, and he faced several challenges to get where he is today.
“The biggest challenge for me is the feeling of not being enough.”
With so many great photographers out there, consistently putting out great content, Julius admits that there are times where he feels overwhelmed and dejected.
“Of course, nowadays, you’re always bombarded with content from other, clearly more talented photographers.”
“The problem with that is that you’re always put in the position of comparing yourself to other people, compositions, and looks.”
Another pressing concern is people’s attitude to photography.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much work and time it takes to create professional videos and photos.”
“I wish more people would understand that photography and videography is a craft like any other and that it takes an enormous amount of time to meet one’s standards and those of customers.”
The Future?
Julius has loads of things that he’d still like to try. For one, he’ll be graduating as an engineer in a year, and he hopes to be able to juggle both his photography and engineering careers. Who knows, maybe he’ll even discover new ways to blend the two.
He also wants to take photos that can rival the works of some of his inspirations in the photography world including Andrè Josselin, Rico Reinhold, Luise Blumstengel, and Tony Andreas Rudolph.
For now, his focus is on his art; developing his style; and representing the people he captures.
“I think it’s always important to try to be yourself and stay on the ball.”
“Photography, like any craft, is something that needs to be practiced regularly so that you don’t get rusty. But it’s also important to figure out for yourself which creative direction you want to go in.”
If you’re interested in keeping up with Julius Kahl, visit his profiles below:
