Picdrop podcast - with Jens Koch (2019)
with a big thank you to @struwwelzeter for finding the link, an (imo) very interesting podcast with Jens Koch on his work, being in prison in Iran for a few months and working with his idols, Rammstein.
The podcast host is Andreas Chudowski, himself also a photographer (mostly of politicians etc), who in each episode invites a colleague who works in a specific 'niche' of the photography business. Jens is listed as celebrity photographer, and indeed agrees that is his niche and that what he loves to do: meet celebrities and make pretty photos 🌺
Celebrities
Around 0h20 the conversation moves to 'who was nice to work with and who wasn't', Jens mentions Lady Gaga as someone who was really nice to work with, she was very interested in the shoot etc, Pamela Anderson was a bit more work, demanding a specific lighting setup, which Jens' dad made at home (because he likes to tinker with equipment), then when Pamela saw the light she almost stormed out again, fortunately a shoot happened, but Pamela demanded to see the photos right after and deleted a few pictures herself without hesitation (fortunately Pamela didn't know there is revovery software for deleted photos, and the one that is currently shown in Jens' portfolio of her is one she hasn't approved 😇) but in general that wasn't a bad shoot either. Jens mentions the worst experiences were the ones of which we don't know he did a shoot with, because the photos never worked out or never happened.
He has one male US celebrity who he can think of as having done a shoot, but not liking the experience, but he doesn't want to name him, the person is generally regarded a ladies' favorite (Jens doesn't understand why). interviewer: George Clooney? Jens: no, he is out of my league. I: Brad Pitt then? Jens: no, haven't photographed him either. Then the interviewer gives up because those are the only two US celebs he can think of; in the rest of the podcast the name Brad Pitt is mentioned more often, but this is always in the context of 'some person that wasn't easy to work with, and whose name we don't know, so we'll just call him Brad Pitt, though it isn't Brad Pitt'.
Somewhere at the first part he mentions he's not really a women's photographer, but still has some good experiences. Not Angela Merkel though..both guys agree that she is pretty difficult to photograph, always the same pose, and she doesn't really like to have her picture taken, but knows it's part of her job (well, was at the time) so she goes along with it, but after a few pictures, always says 'we're done now, right'? Jens mentions he admires Andreas Muehe's set of photographs of Angela, he took a very original approach and that worked really well.
How did he become a photographer
How did Jens get into the photography business, did he start, like so many, as an assistant to another photographer? No, he is a self made man, he always admired the glossy photos in US magazines, started making photos in Cologne for a magazine as freelancer, coming in in the morning with several others, hoping there would be an assignment. Then the cards with assignments for that day would be handed out, each photographer got one, did the shoot, and hoped it would be good enough to get in the magazine and get paid. He never was an assistant (0h36) and thinks that that worked out fine, because you often see that assistants learn photography only in the way their 'teacher' did it, and you can tell from their style.
From that he got more assignments, got called by other magazines to do shoots as well. Typically his clients are magazines like Bild or Focus who do an interview with a celebrity, Jens is asked to do the 'interview photo', and he always tries to get the celebrity to do a portrait photo as well. This means that he often doesn't have much time with the celebrity, not even always an assistant with him, and he needs to make sure the celebrity is in a good mood, engaged, willing to being photographed. If the interview is in a hotelroom, he often sets up his stuff in a separate room that he hires for the day, and the celeb ('promi' in german) just pops in and out. One of the secrets to keeping them engaged is do your homework, work out what they like and talk to them about that. Find music they like and put that on, so the celeb enjoys the experience. It doesn't always work out, but many times it does.
And sometimes, like with David Hasselhoff, who to Jens has always been a big celebrity (Jens being born in East-Germany, in Leipzig (1981), and David Hasselhoff was huge in Germany in his youth), he is basically always 'on'. Both photographers muse that he basically became the persona that we see in the photographs, and now is that way away from the spotlight or the camera lense too.
Apart from his freelance work for interviews he also has a studio now where he chooses himself who to shoot. But the magazine work has always been how he really became known in the business. Nowadays though, celebs and their PR people hire photographers themselves, do a promo-shoot at home, and those photographs are then distributed to magazines to use, so the interview-photography almost doesn't happen anymore.
Iran
At 1h19 the conversation turns to an episode that surprised the interviewer when he was doing his research on Jens, and he asked Jens if it was okay to talk about it: in 2010 Jens and his colleague went for an interview to Iran, were arrested and spend 4 months in jail there. They were going for a serious interview, Jens tagged along because he wanted to do something different for a change. Jens says it was the biggest mistake he made in his life, and they pretty much knew that it was, even when they started their journey. What happened was that as a journalist you need a special journalist-visa to work in Iran. They applied for it and didn't get it. And then they decided to just go anyway. Well while they were doing the interview, the police came in, asked for their visa, and they didn't have it...and then they were locked up. Surprisingly Jens says "It wasn't as bad as you would think", which throws the interviewer off a bit, because he was thinking it would be a life-altering experience, making you want to work with Amnesty International and similar, and wonders if this is a coping mechanism for Jens or if he really moved on. Jens agrees that it may be a coping mechanism to say that, but that he also realises he didn't have as bad an experience as you might think when you hear stories of political prisoners. They were given good food, were treated decently and were comfortable, yes ofcourse they were still locked up and not allowed to go where they wanted, but they just got on with it. And then one day they were told to pack their things and it turned out a German politician was there to pick them up, and only a few hours later he was back in Prenzlauer Berg, going shopping. The interviewer tries to get psychological about it, but Jens doesn't really 'bite', Jens says he's probably too shallow for the deep thoughts (interviewer interjects with "i didn't say that" Jens "no, but i did, because i am"), and he just looks at the nice things in life. You really get a feeling that for Jens it really isn't a topic anymore.
Rammstein
At 1h39 they come to another big theme: Rammstein. Jens was a life long fan of the band. Living in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, where many of the band live too, he had obviously seen them out on the streets, but never spoken to them in a 'Never meet your heroes, because it can only disappoint' kind of way. But when he was asked in an interview a few years back who he really wanted to phtograph one day he said "Till Lindemann of Rammstein". Well as it so happened, he got a call from a friend of his who said "You know what, I'm involved in a video with Rammstein". And Jens was like "you have got to get me in there", so Jens said to the video team that he happened to be in South-Africa (which was no coincidence ofcourse), and if he could come over to do a few pics (think even for free). So that happened, and he did more than a few pics. From that his name got from the video team to band management, and a little later Rolling Stone called about wanting to do a dual cover with Rammstein, white and black. Jens would have been totally happy to do just an interview photo for them (Rolling Stone is normally not one of his clients), but they offered the cover shoot, so obviously he took it. And then he got to do a bigger shoot even, and thought up several setups (for instance one where the band were all holding a puppy). As a fan Jens obviously knew Olaf Heine's work (1h50) with Rammstein, but wanted to do different things. And the band were very lovable ('allerliebst') east-guys (although Jens and the interviewer, both from the east, agree it shouldn't really make a difference being from west or east, the both agree it still does), very easy to work with. And then they called asking if he wanted to do the tour photography for them. At the time of the interview the 2019 European tour has just finished. As a fan Jens had bought tickets to go to the shows in Berlin anyway, but now he got to shoot all the concerts, he only had time off at the last show, because the band didn't want that photographed, and that was the first time he really got to see the show 🌺
Words of wisdom
This being a photographer podcast, the guest is always asked if he had tips for listeners. Jens has to think a bit about that, because he got where he got by working hard and taking opportunities, but he concludes with "Be nice to people, and maintain a good relationships with your contacts, the people you meet and work with". 🌺
