At Forward Festival Munich, we invited photographer Stefan Grau to look through his Digital Eyes and take one-of-a-kind portraits of our speakers.

 

 

Mirko Borsche

 

What was your idea behind the portrait series?
The idea was to integrate this year’s festival motto „Digital Eyes“ into my work. As I am currently working on projects that implement visual effects and animations, I wanted to create something with a digital appeal but without losing the honesty of a photo.

 

Aaron Duffy

 

Is there one or the other interesting anecdote or moment you remember most from the festival?
What I remember most from the event is the fast adaption. As this years event in Munich was right before the Corona pandemic, people haven’t known yet how to behave. Handshake, no handshake? Amongst creatives you will immediately find people inventing new funny ways of doing things. Like saying hello, by foot-checks and various forms of salutations.

 

Helga Osk || Serious Business

 

What was important to you personally when you took the pictures? What did you want to express?
It was important to me that the results show more than a just a photo. But personally, it was also important that, the people to be photographed, had a good time. I think we nailed that.

 

Bence Pap || Artefact

 

Is there a famous person in particular you would like to photograph?
This is a though question, the list is long. Last year I had the honor to photograph Barack Obama this was quite a big thing, let’s see who’s next.

 

Michael Knoll || Artefact

 

How does your past as a graphic designer and retoucher influence your work as a photographer?
It influences me a lot. When I worked as a Graphic Designer, I already had a visual style. I knew how to work with color and proportions and so on. And it also helped me to work with advertising agencies, because I knew their needs. The retouching is absolutely essential for a photographer. Every image, even if its shot on film gets his unique style through the retouch process. You don’t need to retouch every photo yourself, but it helps for the planning process as well as on the set, when time is your biggest enemy.

 

 

Stefan Grau is a freelance photographer living in Munich and working worldwide. He photographs celebrities, creatives, entrepreneurs, friends and interesting people or objects that catches his attention. Stefan is a true Globetrotter, he has already traveled over 50 countries, he speaks several languages fluently and has endless stories to tell. Among his clients are Porsche, eBay, Warner Music, BMW, Aigner, Google, Audi – just to name a few.
With his charming and happy vibe, he makes every set a wonderful place.
If you enjoy Stefan’s work as much as we do, check out his Instagram and his website.

 

Hans-Peter Albrecht || Lürzer’s Archive

 

Title Image: Charlotte Bufler || Lürzer’s Archive & The Wunderwaffe