CIRCLE-24 member: Tim BESSERER - Germany
CIRCLE-24: about Tim BESSERER ..
Tim Besserer - Germany
(1952, Germany, father of two)
(1952, Germany, father of two)
Tim is shooting around the world for his agency, specialised in tourism promotion, producing everything from advertising to multi-media shows and betacam movies. He is a lecturer of photography and has published books on South African and Indian photographers. When travelling, he sometimes goes to very strange and scary places ...
Producer of large AV-shows, Lecturer, Kassel School of Fine Arts .Tim Besserer's work is always in demand. He is very busy shooting around the world for his agency, specializing in tourism promotion, producing everything from advertising to multi-media events and video films. In just three months he visited Budapest, Paris, Berlin and Hawaii. When travelling he sometimes gets to very strange and scary places ........ He organized a summary exhibition of Indian photography, and published books on South African and Indian photographers including: 'My Passage Through Indian Photography','The Eternal Wheel'.
e-mail: Tim.Besserer@gmx.de
Tim Besserer interview 2001
> born in Büdingen near Frankfurt 1952
> first pictures with a Kodak Instamatic and mothers Agfa Silette 1964
> photoreward of the German-French Association 1966
> diploma in communication design, focus photography 1976
> studio photographer in Frankfurt 1976 - 1983
> producer of photo exhibitions and editor since 1980
> freelancing photographer and producer mainly for the tourism industry since 1984
> teacher for photography at School of Graphic Arts, Kassel 1990
> member of „Circle 24” since 1990
> general manager of tourism promotion agency Foerster & Reimann in Frankfurt since 1992
> video productions for German and Irish companies since 1993
Exhibitions
1976 City Hall Büdingen (individual exhibition of portraits „With My Eyes“)
1977 Galerie Zillestrasse, West-Berlin (individual exhibition of portraits „With My Eyes“)
1977 Zum Anker, Büdingen (individual exhibition of portraits „Everyday-pictures from Egypt“)
1983 Pirol, Zwingenberg (individual exhibition of portraits „Mimesis - Theater-Photography from Germany and South Afrika“)
1984 Theaterwerkstatt, Frankfurt (individual exhibition of portraits „Mimesis - Theater-Photography from Germany and South Afrika“)
1985 Forum Theater, Darmstadt (individual exhibition of portraits „People“)
1986 Lonja, Valencia (group exhibition/landscapes and street photography “Spain”)
1994 Gallery 24, Den Haag (group exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1994 Kodak Salon, Tokyo (group exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1995 MNS-Photogallery, Glasgow (gr. exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1996 Photomuseum of Finland, Helsinki (gr. exhib./street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1996 Kulturhuset, Stockholm (group exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1997 Danmarks Fotomuseum, Herning (group exhibition/street photography „Pretty Pictures“)
26.07.1998 - 26.08.1998 Danmarks Fotomuseum, Herning (individual exhibition/street photography „2gether“)
2000 Grafenhaus Herrnhaag, Büdingen (group exhibition/large size inkjet prints „Magic Moments“)
2001 Haarscharf, Frankfurt (individual exhibition/large size inkjet prints „Magic Moments“)
What do I do for a living ..
I am running a small tourism promotion agency with my partner in Frankfurt. My job is on the production side. We are doing everything in that niche, from postcards to posters, from advertising campaigns to concepts, from film productions to entire events. I am doing the photo shootings world wide, capturing the various tourism destinations. Our clients are companies such as:
German National Tourism Board, City of Baden-Baden, British Tourist Authority, Irish Tourist Board, French Tourist Board, Tourism Board of Italy, Bahamas Tourist Office, Cyprus Tourism Organisation, Canadian Tourism Commission, Government of Dubai, Lake Geneva Region, Government of Dominica, Government of Trinidad & Tobago, Swiss Tourist Board, South African Tourism Board, Tahiti Tourisme, Tourism Toronto, Tourism Vancouver, Delta Air Lines, Air Canada, Finnair, LTU International Airways, South African Airways, Lufthansa, Deutsches Reisebüro, Dertour, AVIS, Center Parcs, Club Med etc.
I have been working in the following countries/destinations:
Australia (Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Adelaide), Austria, Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver), Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary (Budapest), India (New Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbay, Jaipur, Gujarat), Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban), Spain (Valencia, Barcelona, Valencia), Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Fujeirah), USA (Florida, Los Angeles, San Diego, El Paso, Cape Cod, New York, Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Santa Fe), USSR (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Eriwan, Tiflis, Samarkand, Buchara, Tashkent, Irkuts and Lake Baikal, Bratsk, Volgograd)
Most notable achievements
1971: meeting my wife Alexandra and inviting her to a shooting …
1978/79: becoming a father of a white son and a black daughter …
1984: doing the first pan-racial photo exhibition and book on South African photographers during Apartheid and having success …
1986: taking pictures of the Sydney Dance Company during a show at the Sydney Opera without flash just with a Leica M6 …
1986: doing a research, a book and a photo exhibition on Indian photographers
1990: meeting Robert Schilder (this is not a joke)
1990: being a teacher for photography in Kassel (because of the laziness of the students I decided to stop after half a year)
1993: producing the first film on the united Germany (2 international awards)
1994: 4x Budapest, 3x Hawaii, 2x Ireland, 1x Toronto, 1x Paris, 1x Amsterdam …
1999: starting to do Yoga
2001: deciding to be a vegetarian
The South African and the Indian project
I started the South African project (research) in 1980 in a moment where I was not satisfied with my work and my way of living. In 1982 I spent 10.000,- DM of my own money to go to Harare, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to do the research on location, not knowing if I ever would have a pay-back of these costs. I just wanted to push things and to commit myself to something new, to learn about how other colleagues live and work. I met the most incredible photographers there, made friends for a lifetime (I have visited Jimi Matthews last year in Cape Town/he is now the head of “etv”) and learned so much for my own way of being a photographer .
When I went to India in 1986 it was different, because I was working on the background of the “South African” success. Nevertheless it was a cultural shock to see the Indian reality and the everyday problems of the colleagues there. But I learned so much from them for my own way of working as a photographer that I am still thankful, especially to Jyothi Bhatt, for his hospitality, gratefulness and generosity. It was after my “Indian Experience” that I really turned to be the photographer I always wanted to be, being the one who I really am, taking the pictures I always wanted to take. During the years I have reached a certain level of clearness in my work as a photographer as well as in my own personality, which is influenced in a big part by these two projects. I have learned in South Africa and in India that there is another reality, that there are other possibilities, that - although there are so many differences in standard of living as well as in culture – we belong to the same species, that all is one, that borders can be overcome, that we all are brothers and sisters. Maybe it´s also because in my parents home we always gave home to people of other countries and because my grandmother was French. Someone who was coming from another country never frightened me. I have never seen my culture “versus” other cultures – but always as the duality of things.
My children
They have been the best thing I have ever done in my life. Raising a child is so challenging, because you get to really know about where you are and who you are. To adopt a black child in Germany was not hard at all, only funny sometimes. Sarah has not gone through hard times here because we live in a small village where everybody knows everybody. She has always been accepted and still is. I have a very intense relation to our two kids. We talk a lot about all kinds of things, both have been working with me and – I am proud to say – both have inherited my photographic capabilities as well al the best characteristics of my wife Alexandra.
About the humour in my photographs
It may result from my fathers way of taking life’s challenges as god-given gift and not as a burden. He, who did survive 2nd World War, who spend 12 months in Russian camps as prisoner of war and survived this hell, always had a smile on his lips, even in the darkest moments. I think I inherited his capability of laughing about yourself. In addition, as I concentrated on street photography and on the reality there, I accepted that everything happening to me, is a gift too. So when I start a new project in a foreign country for example, I am very open minded and have no fears to see something new – even if I do not understand in the first place. I am always happy to learn about new people, about new cultures and to see if I can find something new in it for my private life. I am always looking to the detail too when I am shooting, I am seeing the small world, the macro cosmos as well as the micro cosmos. Everything is connected to my life – it may be that I do not understand at once, but maybe when I get home and go through the 5000 framed slides and contact sheets, I may understand what I saw and why I did a picture and I will start to smile - even if I missed it. I love my job, I love life, I love where I am and what I do. That is maybe why my pictures are seldom sad. But I am not a war photographer!!! Maybe then my pictures would be sad. But I never could do this job – I would throw away the cameras and help to save people.
My exhibition project in 2000
This was the first exhibition which I did with my wife who is a painter. It was in many ways something new for me. The location was a mansion 250 years old, half in ruins, and we had to do literally everything: press work, invitation, poster, lighting, cultural program around the exhibition, catering … We lived there too and spent day and night so we achieved a very intense feeling for the place. It was on the countryside, about 45 minutes out of Frankfurt. But through good PR we had a lot of visitors. To be there all the time and to be able to talk to the visitors each day was very good. We had the possibility to control everything and were not depending from others. Usually this is a lot different when you exhibit in galleries or museums. I realized how great it is to have the ability to control the atmosphere of the exhibition place 100% and the way my work is presented. A clean white wall is not always what is needed for a presentation. Sometimes a raw stone wall and a bare loamy soil is better then a shiny gallery because the smell and the spiritual influence on the visitor increases the message of the work presented. But – of cause – the project was not a financial success! Just a personal one. Sponsors were not to be found. Does this species still exist??
About Budapest
The biggest problem was the language. I did not understand a single word. As I was doing a research for a film on the Hungarian-German history, I did depend on locals who spoke English or German and I was amazed how many do. I had a very good young man, who opened up simply every door for me – Miklos. He is still a friend who visits us or sends me short messages or e-mails. When in Budapest I love a lot the feeling to be at a historic place, where so many things happened. The river and the old buildings, the music, the fusion of the West and the East – in Budapest all that is so much alive. And – as a German – I am very grateful to the Hungarian people and government that they helped Germany in its unification process by opening their borders towards Austria to let the East-German refugees go to West-Germany. That was when the wall collapsed.
About Yoga
Two years ago I took up Yoga and am still doing it each morning between 5 and 6am (when I was not working late). Also when I am on a shooting, I do practise each morning before sunrise, no matter where I am. The best place was on Frazer Island in the jungle. At sunrise with the parrots and whip birds making the music for my Asanas I felt like being in paradise. Yoga cured my decade-long back problems and it helped me focussing on what is really meaningful to me. In my photography I can see a yogic influence too: it became more precise and focussed, I am more relaxed and – it may sound funny – I do accept more these situations where a photograph just is not possible. For all those tall fellow-colleagues with the back-problems because of the heavy camera-bags and the always missing assistant, I can only suggest to join in the yoga practise. It´s a cheap way of getting spiritual pleasure and medical help. And it opens up your mind!
Regards,
TIM
e-mail: Tim.Besserer@gmx.de
> born in Büdingen near Frankfurt 1952
> first pictures with a Kodak Instamatic and mothers Agfa Silette 1964
> photoreward of the German-French Association 1966
> diploma in communication design, focus photography 1976
> studio photographer in Frankfurt 1976 - 1983
> producer of photo exhibitions and editor since 1980
> freelancing photographer and producer mainly for the tourism industry since 1984
> teacher for photography at School of Graphic Arts, Kassel 1990
> member of „Circle 24” since 1990
> general manager of tourism promotion agency Foerster & Reimann in Frankfurt since 1992
> video productions for German and Irish companies since 1993
Exhibitions
1976 City Hall Büdingen (individual exhibition of portraits „With My Eyes“)
1977 Galerie Zillestrasse, West-Berlin (individual exhibition of portraits „With My Eyes“)
1977 Zum Anker, Büdingen (individual exhibition of portraits „Everyday-pictures from Egypt“)
1983 Pirol, Zwingenberg (individual exhibition of portraits „Mimesis - Theater-Photography from Germany and South Afrika“)
1984 Theaterwerkstatt, Frankfurt (individual exhibition of portraits „Mimesis - Theater-Photography from Germany and South Afrika“)
1985 Forum Theater, Darmstadt (individual exhibition of portraits „People“)
1986 Lonja, Valencia (group exhibition/landscapes and street photography “Spain”)
1994 Gallery 24, Den Haag (group exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1994 Kodak Salon, Tokyo (group exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1995 MNS-Photogallery, Glasgow (gr. exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1996 Photomuseum of Finland, Helsinki (gr. exhib./street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1996 Kulturhuset, Stockholm (group exhibition/street photography „Strange People – Strange Places“)
1997 Danmarks Fotomuseum, Herning (group exhibition/street photography „Pretty Pictures“)
26.07.1998 - 26.08.1998 Danmarks Fotomuseum, Herning (individual exhibition/street photography „2gether“)
2000 Grafenhaus Herrnhaag, Büdingen (group exhibition/large size inkjet prints „Magic Moments“)
2001 Haarscharf, Frankfurt (individual exhibition/large size inkjet prints „Magic Moments“)
What do I do for a living ..
I am running a small tourism promotion agency with my partner in Frankfurt. My job is on the production side. We are doing everything in that niche, from postcards to posters, from advertising campaigns to concepts, from film productions to entire events. I am doing the photo shootings world wide, capturing the various tourism destinations. Our clients are companies such as:
German National Tourism Board, City of Baden-Baden, British Tourist Authority, Irish Tourist Board, French Tourist Board, Tourism Board of Italy, Bahamas Tourist Office, Cyprus Tourism Organisation, Canadian Tourism Commission, Government of Dubai, Lake Geneva Region, Government of Dominica, Government of Trinidad & Tobago, Swiss Tourist Board, South African Tourism Board, Tahiti Tourisme, Tourism Toronto, Tourism Vancouver, Delta Air Lines, Air Canada, Finnair, LTU International Airways, South African Airways, Lufthansa, Deutsches Reisebüro, Dertour, AVIS, Center Parcs, Club Med etc.
I have been working in the following countries/destinations:
Australia (Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Adelaide), Austria, Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver), Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary (Budapest), India (New Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbay, Jaipur, Gujarat), Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban), Spain (Valencia, Barcelona, Valencia), Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Fujeirah), USA (Florida, Los Angeles, San Diego, El Paso, Cape Cod, New York, Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Santa Fe), USSR (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Eriwan, Tiflis, Samarkand, Buchara, Tashkent, Irkuts and Lake Baikal, Bratsk, Volgograd)
Most notable achievements
1971: meeting my wife Alexandra and inviting her to a shooting …
1978/79: becoming a father of a white son and a black daughter …
1984: doing the first pan-racial photo exhibition and book on South African photographers during Apartheid and having success …
1986: taking pictures of the Sydney Dance Company during a show at the Sydney Opera without flash just with a Leica M6 …
1986: doing a research, a book and a photo exhibition on Indian photographers
1990: meeting Robert Schilder (this is not a joke)
1990: being a teacher for photography in Kassel (because of the laziness of the students I decided to stop after half a year)
1993: producing the first film on the united Germany (2 international awards)
1994: 4x Budapest, 3x Hawaii, 2x Ireland, 1x Toronto, 1x Paris, 1x Amsterdam …
1999: starting to do Yoga
2001: deciding to be a vegetarian
The South African and the Indian project
I started the South African project (research) in 1980 in a moment where I was not satisfied with my work and my way of living. In 1982 I spent 10.000,- DM of my own money to go to Harare, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to do the research on location, not knowing if I ever would have a pay-back of these costs. I just wanted to push things and to commit myself to something new, to learn about how other colleagues live and work. I met the most incredible photographers there, made friends for a lifetime (I have visited Jimi Matthews last year in Cape Town/he is now the head of “etv”) and learned so much for my own way of being a photographer .
When I went to India in 1986 it was different, because I was working on the background of the “South African” success. Nevertheless it was a cultural shock to see the Indian reality and the everyday problems of the colleagues there. But I learned so much from them for my own way of working as a photographer that I am still thankful, especially to Jyothi Bhatt, for his hospitality, gratefulness and generosity. It was after my “Indian Experience” that I really turned to be the photographer I always wanted to be, being the one who I really am, taking the pictures I always wanted to take. During the years I have reached a certain level of clearness in my work as a photographer as well as in my own personality, which is influenced in a big part by these two projects. I have learned in South Africa and in India that there is another reality, that there are other possibilities, that - although there are so many differences in standard of living as well as in culture – we belong to the same species, that all is one, that borders can be overcome, that we all are brothers and sisters. Maybe it´s also because in my parents home we always gave home to people of other countries and because my grandmother was French. Someone who was coming from another country never frightened me. I have never seen my culture “versus” other cultures – but always as the duality of things.
My children
They have been the best thing I have ever done in my life. Raising a child is so challenging, because you get to really know about where you are and who you are. To adopt a black child in Germany was not hard at all, only funny sometimes. Sarah has not gone through hard times here because we live in a small village where everybody knows everybody. She has always been accepted and still is. I have a very intense relation to our two kids. We talk a lot about all kinds of things, both have been working with me and – I am proud to say – both have inherited my photographic capabilities as well al the best characteristics of my wife Alexandra.
About the humour in my photographs
It may result from my fathers way of taking life’s challenges as god-given gift and not as a burden. He, who did survive 2nd World War, who spend 12 months in Russian camps as prisoner of war and survived this hell, always had a smile on his lips, even in the darkest moments. I think I inherited his capability of laughing about yourself. In addition, as I concentrated on street photography and on the reality there, I accepted that everything happening to me, is a gift too. So when I start a new project in a foreign country for example, I am very open minded and have no fears to see something new – even if I do not understand in the first place. I am always happy to learn about new people, about new cultures and to see if I can find something new in it for my private life. I am always looking to the detail too when I am shooting, I am seeing the small world, the macro cosmos as well as the micro cosmos. Everything is connected to my life – it may be that I do not understand at once, but maybe when I get home and go through the 5000 framed slides and contact sheets, I may understand what I saw and why I did a picture and I will start to smile - even if I missed it. I love my job, I love life, I love where I am and what I do. That is maybe why my pictures are seldom sad. But I am not a war photographer!!! Maybe then my pictures would be sad. But I never could do this job – I would throw away the cameras and help to save people.
My exhibition project in 2000
This was the first exhibition which I did with my wife who is a painter. It was in many ways something new for me. The location was a mansion 250 years old, half in ruins, and we had to do literally everything: press work, invitation, poster, lighting, cultural program around the exhibition, catering … We lived there too and spent day and night so we achieved a very intense feeling for the place. It was on the countryside, about 45 minutes out of Frankfurt. But through good PR we had a lot of visitors. To be there all the time and to be able to talk to the visitors each day was very good. We had the possibility to control everything and were not depending from others. Usually this is a lot different when you exhibit in galleries or museums. I realized how great it is to have the ability to control the atmosphere of the exhibition place 100% and the way my work is presented. A clean white wall is not always what is needed for a presentation. Sometimes a raw stone wall and a bare loamy soil is better then a shiny gallery because the smell and the spiritual influence on the visitor increases the message of the work presented. But – of cause – the project was not a financial success! Just a personal one. Sponsors were not to be found. Does this species still exist??
About Budapest
The biggest problem was the language. I did not understand a single word. As I was doing a research for a film on the Hungarian-German history, I did depend on locals who spoke English or German and I was amazed how many do. I had a very good young man, who opened up simply every door for me – Miklos. He is still a friend who visits us or sends me short messages or e-mails. When in Budapest I love a lot the feeling to be at a historic place, where so many things happened. The river and the old buildings, the music, the fusion of the West and the East – in Budapest all that is so much alive. And – as a German – I am very grateful to the Hungarian people and government that they helped Germany in its unification process by opening their borders towards Austria to let the East-German refugees go to West-Germany. That was when the wall collapsed.
About Yoga
Two years ago I took up Yoga and am still doing it each morning between 5 and 6am (when I was not working late). Also when I am on a shooting, I do practise each morning before sunrise, no matter where I am. The best place was on Frazer Island in the jungle. At sunrise with the parrots and whip birds making the music for my Asanas I felt like being in paradise. Yoga cured my decade-long back problems and it helped me focussing on what is really meaningful to me. In my photography I can see a yogic influence too: it became more precise and focussed, I am more relaxed and – it may sound funny – I do accept more these situations where a photograph just is not possible. For all those tall fellow-colleagues with the back-problems because of the heavy camera-bags and the always missing assistant, I can only suggest to join in the yoga practise. It´s a cheap way of getting spiritual pleasure and medical help. And it opens up your mind!
Regards,
TIM
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