Interview • 116 PH

Markus Bex, Beauty in Banality

Oberhausen, Germany

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

My name is Markus and I'm from Germany. More specifically I'm from a town called Oberhausen, which is located in the middle of NRW (Germany's biggest «State»). I work as a graphic designer, part time employed and part time freelancing, which allows me to work on my own projects and of course my photography. 

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

I discovered my love for photography rather late. I did have contact to it during my time at university but I didn't recognize the potential back then and I also didn't have an artistic vision on what to do with this form of art.

I finally found my passion in 2018 after visiting the South-West of the United States where I started to realize how much I can do with it and how strong I can alter reality to my likings by framing objects and landscapes in a specific way.

For me it's kinda of a therapeutic activity because I can focus on simple things and put all the chaos and problems in this world aside. «Out of frame, out of mind» you could say. 

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

The photograph itself is rarely planned. I do plan to go out and drive somewhere to take pictures but thats about it, when it comes to preperation. From there on I just walk around and take in my surroundings.

Over the years I've developed a certain way of looking at things. Mostly I am trying to play with shadows, shapes and colors, sometimes I try to capture a certain feeling like solitude or peacefullness. Other times I'm imagining a movie scene that could take place at a certain location. 

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

There's not really a story that I want to tell but more a story that the picture can tell to every individual viewer. I'm an observer like everyone else and even though I think of stories a picture can tell me, it's just an interpretation or a guess that I am having for myself.

I can give the viewer a hint by giving my picture a specific title to steer the attention to something that I think is important but ultimately it's up to the viewer itself to ask about possible stories or imagine a background about an image. That's also kind of the point of my photography.

I'm just trying to find interesting things or something that sticks out. I didn't create anything that I shoot myself. I just created the framing and my own idea of scene that i want to offer to other peoples interpretation. 

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

That's a really tough question! Right now I can only think about a city that I already visited but didn't spend much time in. A city where I only scratched the surface of what could be possible when it comes to minimalism photography.

This city is called Palm Springs. There are just so many photo opportunities there, that I could only scratch the surface while I was there. 

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

Personally I don't exactly like cities that much. The are often too loud, too dirty, too busy and too cramped. I would never spend my hollidays in a city for longer than a few days. But that's also the reason why I mostly shoot in cities. Only if you have all these negative aspects you can try to find the beauty and put it into a frame.

I guess my photography wouldn't work very well if I was living in the countryside even though I would prefer to live there when it comes to quality of life. That might sound a bit ambivalent but I think it's also the reason why I started shooting in cities in the firs place.

Regarding your book Beauty in Banality: what was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?

My intention was nothing more than sharing my photography outside of Instagram. Not only do I want to reach more people but I also want to let people experience my pictures printed on paper and bigger in size. 

Most of my pictures have never been seen on anything else than a mobile phone and I think there is a lot of visual detail that is lost because of it. I hope a book can provide a deeper look at my photography.

There's also a higher chance that people take their time for every picuture instead of taking a quick 1–3 second look before they keep scrolling. 

Which project did you never finish?

I wouldn't really say there are projects that i never finished. There are just a few that are put on hold until I have the time or the money to start or continue them. For example: I'm planning to do an exhibition at some point.

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

I don't really have that «one thing». I guess there where some situations where I drove by something interesting that I wanted to return to at some point and then it was gone. But it was never something that bothered me a lot. We are living in a world that is constantly changing and if something is gone for good it usually doesn't take long until something new shows up. 

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

Though one.... Most of the time I try to live in the present and don't think too much about the future. I guess if I could give my younger self an advice it would be something like: «Start doing stuff and don't wait for anything to happen».

Looking back I wasted a lot of time during my 20s. It was nice having so much time but ultimately I was missing orientation on where to go in life. I still haven't figured it out completely but i managed to have a few perspectives which makes me feel a lot more secure.

I just want to keep going and see where everything leads. I still try to avoid thinking about the future so much, especially in uncertain times like these. 

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

I will go with «to take a photograph» since that's the phrase that makes the most sense to me. I just press a button and take a photograph of the world around me. The camera takes care of the «making a photograph» part from a technical standpoint.

When you go a step further you could argue that postproduction is also an aspect where "making a photograph" would be a better fit. I think in the end they are just 2 different things that are both needed for a finished photograph.

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

The most interesting experience for me is a change of my mood. It's generally a really relaxing activity which can alter my state of mind in a very short time. When I'm feeling down, angry or stressed I usually loose all of these negativ feeling once I find a great spot to shoot and focus my attention purely on finding the best angles.

When it comes to interesting experiences from outside sources, it would be the reaction from other people when I'm sneaking around their properties. I never leave public spaces and wouldn't trespass at any point, but peope can be very suspicious.

Sometimes I am followed by a car, sometimes people walk towards me to ask what I'm doing.... Usually that's nothing which worries me and I'm always prepared to explain myself and hand over my business card but it sometimes leaves a feeling of doing something illegal.

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

Probably Film. I always had a thing for movies, especially the ones with a clear visual concept where the camera work creates a great gateway for the story to be transported to the viewer. I do love good stories but the movies that stick out the most to me are the ones where the visual style has an equal part in creating something great.

Movies from West Anderson for example would loose a lot of appeal if they where shot with a different style. It also inspires me when it comes to photography, since I often imagine my motifs as movie sets. 

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

Since I can't really talk about colors if the person has never seen them I would probably start by describing the scene and the feeling it evokes. Starting with an objectiv description about the things you see and the composition they are arranged in.

Depending on the picture I would try to explain how light and shadows impact the overall mood. Ultimately I think it would be pretty hard to explain my pictures because they are pretty bland by nature and only become special by combination of colors, shapes and light.

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

I would really like to put together a real exhibition where people can experience my work in a bigger format and might even discover details that where previously hidden by the limitation of the screensize. I would also be interested having real conversations about how people perceive my photography.

Even thoough instagram is a great way to reach people and share photography it is very limited in certain aspects especially when it comes to feedback and discussions. Most of the time it only consists of emojis or short sentences, which is logical, given the nature of social media.

Taking my work outside the digital realm and presenting it in a different way is definetely one of my goals for the future. 

Thank you, Markus!

Editorial Notes

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Photography: Markus Bex (2020)
Location: Oberhausen, NRW, Germany

Links: Instagram, Facebook

Oberhausen, Germany

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