Biography
Oliver Stegmann is a self-taught photographer. His main interests are documentary and street photography.
He was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1970 and started taking his first pictures at the age of 18. In 1997, he changed to Black & White photography and has hardly ever shot a roll of colour film since. This special experience made the hobby turn into a passion.
On many trips to different locations on five continents he has continuously worked on improving his skills as a photographer. He also attended workshops by renowned photographers such as Mary Ellen Mark, Peter Turnley and Andreas Weidner.
Oliver uses Hasselblad and Mamiya medium format as well as Leica and Nikon 35 mm equipment. He develops all films by himself and enlarges the pictures in his own darkroom. Recently, he started to scan the negatives, edit them in Photoshop and make archival fine art prints by using an Epson printer.
"I have always admired the art of Black & White photography, the work of such gifted photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith or Elliott Erwitt whose best pictures caught the right moment. Also the works of Jeanloup Sieff and especially Mary Ellen Mark are important inspirations for my photography. All these photographers perfectly control composition, light and expression. It seems so simple, but it turns out as a real challenge to get it all right in one photo ..."
"On basically all of my images, human beings are visible. It is so much more alive than for instance a photo of a landscape or a building."