Snapshots Directed with Spontaneity

Martin Muntenbruch's latest project is a visual story of the avant-garde Berlin music and night scene called "Magic Faces," published by ColorFoto. The handsome characters shown here are members of punk bands, actors and actresses, starlets, performers and business personalities. In order to represent their personal image, they all wanted pictures which, as their portraitist Martin Muntenbruch believes, "help them to find themselves."

Martin's priority is to capture the essence of their characters. The relationship between photographer and model in a relaxed atmosphere gives free space for spontaneous ideas. Martin works fast and flexible, like a war journalist, but he always delivers pictures that appear carefully composed, as if shot in a fully equipped studio. The only backbone he needs to perform his magic is the story and the location. He keeps his technical setup to the minimum: one Pentax 135 mm SLR camera with two lenses in 24 and 135 mm, a tripod, and a portable flash.

Martin crystalizes not only the moment, but also the secret and unknown past of his subjects, and reveals their uncertain future. He often demands that his models look directly into the lens. Martin's lighting technique focuses especially onto the eyes. "Only the eyes can show power and glory, and that's what they all want to project. I give them that power and glory," Martin explains.

After leaving college, Martin went to Paris where he spent almost a year working on his first exhibition "Das filmische Bild" (The Cinematic Image). Through photography, he was able to take his vision, which he started developing as a surrealistic painter, to a new dimension.

As a confirmed autodidact, Martin rejected photo school. "I don't need a professor to tell me what to think," Martin argues. "I just need to find my own solution, and I can find that by reading the camera manual, a good book or a magazine," he says. Martin didn't have a clue about correct tonal settings, but by making creative mistakes, he developed his own unique style, so often envied by his more schooled colleagues.

Through a very unconventional contrast development process (with Ilford Microphen), and a harsh way of printing (with Ilford Multigrade 6 or 7), this 27-year-old former advertising designer underscores his strong visual statements. All effects are created after the shooting: dodging, burning and retouching.

With his proprietary technique under his belt, Martin achieves a murky feeling, which subtly conveys the drama and loneliness of today's younger generation, where everybody carries a "piece of New York" inside. The portraits of this Berlin photographer are influenced by observing the frozen distance of American photography and studying the sparse arrangements of Japanese art. Martin glues both styles together using a good portion of forceful German expressionism. He injects a degree of silent power into his pictures. The result can be seen in the strong impact of his "Magic Faces."