Instagram seems to be almost history for him - "I don't really take it seriously," is Moritz's first surprising confession - "I spend five minutes on the app every day." Wow, who would have thought that from an account with over 40k followers? Admittedly, the number of likes is low - that's why accusations of manipulation are circulating in the office before the interview. But when you meet the really down-to-earth Moritz, all of that disappears into thin air. He has been on Instagram since 2010 - encouraged at the time by an agency colleague - and landed his first hit with a very untypical Alexanderplatz photo. A couple of guys are casually running across the pavement, one with a guitar in his hand - the black and white snapshot is perfect - and should end up as a record cover, at some point.
Moritz then experimented with his account, sometimes in color, sometimes in black and white. The majority of the images are strong street photography, with lots of spontaneous snapshots that require a trained eye. And that's exactly how it is. Moritz actually grew up with a camera in his hand - quite natural when his father is also a photographer. In the early days of Instagram in Germany, he was featured twice and the fat from these boosts is still there today - the photographer couldn't care less.
As a design student in Aachen, he experimented with the camera on his Sony smartphone in the early 2000s - and in 2004 he exhibited his large-scale shots of telephone boxes and a year later, shots taken by throwing the phone into the air. His love of experimentation had already brought him together with eyeEM in 2010, and he was covered on their blog before the app even existed. It seems as if he is always one step ahead of the times.
The web designer now lives with his family in Zehlendorf in a romantic coach house. His card with Pickmotion shows the peaceful setting - on it the cat 'Autobahn' from behind as he blinks into the sunset. He was transplanted from London to Berlin - and his Kraftwerk sister Komet to Paris. Moritz has a shed here where he builds furniture for his son and where chaos is allowed to reign. Because even if the photos often express concentration and focus - "I love being chaotic - and am only a part-time minimalist."
Moritz's favorite Igers:
@growling
@josetoro.0
@insecthaus_adi
