Interview • 086 PH

Maximilian Virgili, Out of Office

Berlin, Germany

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

Hi, my name is Maximilian Virgili, I was raised in Bavaria, near Nürnberg and now work and live in Berlin. I work as a photographer and photo editor.

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

I was much more into film when I grew up. My friends and I would watch a lot of skate and snowboard stuff in our teen years and would constantly imitate that. I think I bought my first camera with 20 and started to get more interested in the medium of photography. While studying literature, culture and media I got more in touch with image theory and film analysis. After an internship with the artist Peter Granser I moved to Berlin and have since been working as a photo editor and photographer.

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

Both I think. It strongly depends on the situation. Sometimes I see something that interests me when riding my bike to work but I don’t have my camera with me that day. The next day I take it with me and stop, so it is kind of planned but initially triggered by intuition.When traveling, I’d say it is nearly always intuition.

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

I want my pictures to evoke some sort of emotion, this could be anything from sadness to laughing to distress, self recognition, dislike. It could work through colour, structures, a face, light... I feel like it is necessary in order to connect myself to the viewer, as I am exposing myself a lot through my work emotionally.

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

I guess Tokyo. It would probably totally overwhelm me, though I am interested in how the city is structured and how society works in Japan. 

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

I am very ambigious when it comes to cities. Personally I am mostly stressed by them, but the denseness of cultural diversities and the pure energy they offer is something I don't want to miss. 

Regarding your project Out of Office: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?

The book project formed approx. two years ago. It was a very personal decision, I wanted to have have something printed, a collection of my travel images from recent years. It felt as if I had to give the chaotic output a structure, a status quo of my visual language? I talked to a friend of mine, graphic designer Max Winter, about realising the project together. It took a while to form and edit the book but I am glad I took the time to put in some new and fresh work especially from the last two years. I am happy it is out there now and hopefully it will touch the viewer in one way or another.

Which project did you never finish?

I started a project a couple of years ago where I photographed tourists photographing, but dropped it for some reason. 

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

Not completely vanished, but the Franz-Josef-glacier in New Zealand. I was there 2009 and it is horrible to see how it retreated in the last 10 years. 

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

Care less / patience.

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

Never really thought about this, but definitely depends on the situation—If I do a still life, I’d say more «make» it, because there is a lot more staging and composing involved. If I travel, it is more «take», the situation composes itself, I just capture it in the way that feels right to me I guess.

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

Shooting the rural life in Lesotho, a small country in South Africa, up high in the mountains. 

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

Acting was and is something that still interests me a lot.

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

I often try to structure my pics graphically when I approach a subject. The right light, often a mix of flash, hard sunlight or dusk/dawn is often important for my pictures to work. Topics like the trivial and grotesque, the interference and romance of humans with their surroundings, connections between nature and staging is what interests me and what I try to convey within my pictures.

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

I am sketching a bigger personal project about the topic of Death, still researching but will hopefully start early 2022. Haven't planned any big journeys due to obvious reasons, but let's see. Maybe a good reason to try and photograph more in my natural environment.

Thank you, Maximilian!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Maximilian Virgili
Location: Berlin, Germany

Links: Website, Instagram, Book

Berlin, Germany

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