Interview • 099 PH

Malte Oing, Skopje Kiosks

Skopje, North Macedonia

Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

My name is Malte Oing, I am a photographer based in Bielefeld, Germany.

What is your relationship with photography, and how did you get into it?

I'm currently studying photography at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, and I'm also a freelance photographer and filmmaker. The interest in photography and film was always present in my life and after my apprenticeship as an IT-specialist I decided that I'm way more passionate for photography. And after starting my studies and getting to know more and more artists and photography art I realised: Thats what I want to do—day in and day out.

What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition

50/50. I learned that working with a concept and a plan always helps to create a better series. But during the process of taking the picture its mostly intuition, I'm just using my type of view on the subject to express what I want to express.

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

My focus often lies on cultural or sociecty topics. The stories are driven by my humor, I want the spectator to see the what a small scenery has to offer, after taking a closer look.

Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?

I have never been to an east german city rather than east Berlin. So I would love to visit Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz—and the countryside of former GDR.

What is your personal relationship to cities, and how do you perceive them as places in general?

I was born in a small village near the dutch border, cities were mostly places to get stuff we wont get at home. But after moving to Bielefeld and getting to know the city, I love living in it. I love how you get a feeling for the society and the small «cities» inside the city.

Regarding your project Skopje Kiosks: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?

The work was created during an excursion with a group of students back in 2019 to Skopje, North-Macedonia. After walking around I recognised the small, mostly western company branded kiosks inside all of the brutalistc, soviet architecture. And I recognized all the different people going there and buying different stuff. The scene was always different, depending on wether it was morning, afternoon and evening. You could sit there and watch that kiosks for hours, so I documented the scences of different kiosks to create multiple episodes of it. My intention was to recreate the scene inside the viewers head.

Which project did you never finish?

A lot. But often the process matters, taking something for yourself to put the learnings into the next process.

What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?

Probably the time in my youth. I have so little visual memory of it, I would love to have a small album with all that bullshit we've done back then.

If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?

Go buy yourself a good chair to work on and do more back-workouts. I'm 24 and my back is already killing me :(

What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?

I guess you take a photograph and if you, depending on your choice of presentation, you made an image.

What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?

While we were in Skopje, my friends and I were walking around the city, taking photos. A guy then walked right past us, insulted us as western spies. After that moment my interest in understanding the differences between east and west, the mentality of people who lived in the east during the cold war, was bigger than ever. Thats why I want to visit as many cities in the former GDR as possible.

If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?

Something with paper. Bookmaking, printing, something like that. I like the technical workflow while printing, setting up the data, choose the paper, color adjustments and stuff. I guess I got the addiction from my dad, he's running a small printing house for 30 years back in my hometown.

How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?

Most of the time my picture are made by my sense of humor. I want to capture the strange and funny things, that often are, sadly, just funny to me. These things find themself in a calm and concentrated picture, I often seek matching colors, ares that belong to each other.

What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?

I am currently working on a project about an old british barrack in Germany, the architecture, leftovers, spirit of the place. And also working on a book about Gelsenkirchen, which I hopefully will published as my degree in summer 2023.

Thank you, Malte!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Malte Oing
Location: Skopje, North Macedonia

Links: Website, Instagram

Interview • 099 PH

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