Ciao caro... un cappuccino per favore... The tone of the language elevates Italy to Bella Italia. But it's not just the language. There are a thousand little things: The tinkling of church bells, for example, or the way the horns blare, in nearby Venice as well as in Rome, Naples and Amalfi. In a similar way, the camera can capture visual stereotypes, skirting the clichés by a hair's breadth and recognising what we have in common in details that make us marvel and smile at what does not exist north of the Alps. A touch of dolce vita, with a slight wistfulness about the missed opportunity of not having been born in Italy. - Italianità can almost only be contemplated so quietly and from so close by with the help of photos.

It is windy, cold and lonely on the volcanic island in the North Atlantic - often and almost everywhere. Some pictures of the highlands and West Fjordland give you an idea of this, but you can hardly experience it for yourself. You can feel all the more liberated and lost in the solitude on the elongated hills and in the crevices in between. The landscape is too vast and the sky too high to be captured in frames.

Where roads and paths end, nature begins. Wild, true nature. Here and there it begins almost on our doorstep: for example at the waterfall in Foroglio or in the chasms of the Trutg da Flem in Flims. All it takes is a morning glow over Rapperswil to make us forget our breakfast bread. Photography can not only conjure up the atmosphere of a room. It can just as well block out the world beyond the edge of the picture to give us moments of happiness on this side of visibility: feelings of dopamine, be it in the mystical secrets of a tree bark in Venice or in the wild branches of an araucaria in Brissago. We want to say to the moment: Linger, linger, you are so beautiful. You don't need to be Faust to wish for seconds of happiness to last.

Tisvilde Hegn is a protected forest in Denmark. It lies directly on the Kattega and stretches from the coast in Tisvildeleje to the Asserbo plantation. The nature reserve is characterised by dark stretches of forest and huge birch groves.

Enver Hoxha is said to have built more than one hundred thousand bunkers between 1978 and 1990 - many of which still stand today as a sign of the country's isolation from the rest of the world at the time. But the country has changed since 1991, with a pronounced sense of national pride going hand in hand with the desire to join the EU soon, steadily prospering tourism, self-sufficient agriculture, hopes of growing prosperity throughout the country and visions of a booming capital city.

The Westfjords are undoubtedly one of best-kept secrets of Iceland. The remoteness and sparse population have preserved the unspoiled nature of the Westfjords and the Icelandic folk culture. Although tourism has left its negative as well as positive marks in recent years, I have seen many abandoned farms along the way as a sign that economic survival can be very difficult for farmers here. Many have therefore moved away because they could not continue to run their farms and jobs in the fishing industry have declined sharply in recent decades.

If you go outside in the cold, you should dress warmly. Every child knows that. Snow and ice reveal sub-zero temperatures even from the warmth of the parlour. At Lake Lützel in this fifth sphere, the camera captures the frosty magic of the night in the morning sun. The photographer brought his stiff index finger home and marvelled at the variety of shapes that the computer played from the sensor onto the screen in cold blue. The camera lets the cold clink in its images long after the frozen water has thawed again. - Later, the ice structures sparked the idea for a children's photo book, but that's another story.

Fog hung over the Schnebelhorn as we climbed from Steg to the highest mountain of the canton of Zurich. And with the altitude came the cold. This packed nature in a photogenic dress - commonly known as hoarfrost.

A moment for longevity. Olive trees around the Mediterranean have been defying the elements for thousands of years. Winds have twisted them, storms have ruffled them and lightning has split them. Disfigured by scars and marked by strokes of fate, they stand in space in their very own dignity, as if their bark were telling a piece of world history in a landscape in which they have proven themselves to be messengers of constancy, loyalty and peace, and whether the olive fruit fly and the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium can harm them? In any case, the camera has already created a monument to the olive.

Iceland is infinite landscapes undisturbed by modern infrastructure on the one hand and intimate details on the other. This series of pictures plays with near and far.

In Westfjordland, the wilder west of Iceland, a clock is ticking silently towards its end. An unmistakable rural exodus. Nothing but away from the isolation at the edge of the habitable world, to where aeroplanes and ships connect the island to the rest of the world. - To get a full picture of Iceland's inhospitality, the four months of darkness and winter cold would have to be photographed.

It was after a heavy winter storm near Zurich. when I discovered the structures in the broken trees. I was fascinated by the power emanating from the fractures in the trees, but also by the tranquility radiated from individual tree structures.

Artificial fertiliser was produced here until 2017, and the plant was shut down in 2018. The last workers have left the site. For five years, silence has reigned in the halls on the quiet site by the lake. A place of forlornness. In the meantime, interim uses have taken up residence in the old offices and warehouses. A fine whiff of "lost place" has settled over everything - an echo of two hundred years of history, told by the random witnesses of an era in a museum without a curator and without visitors.

Hardly any other Italian city is as full of life and atmosphere as Naples. People are helpful, lovable and always ready for a little chat. They also like to be surprised by a camera and appreciated the personal contact after taking the pictures. Many of them told me exciting stories about their lives and their city.

Every city has its own scent, its own atmosphere and its own details. The picture series contains numerous "perfumes" from a variety of cities around the world.

On my last trip to the African savannah I have rather spotted for natural patterns in the landscape than for animals. The result is a bunch of pictures not instantly revealing what they are showing.

After a violent winter storm many broken trees gave insight into their innermost. One trunk particularly attracted me, because it revealed immaginary landscapes in its fracture, which inspire the viewer to fantasize. Images of worlds are created in the mind that one believes to have seen or dreamt elsewhere before.

I have started with black & white photography only recently. Especially when it comes to portraits I am fascinated by the enormous emotional potential it shows.

The series "StrandSand" depict micro landscapes that I found on the beaches pf Vietnam. But it could have been everywhere. I was fascinated by the landscape-like structures formed by waves, small watercourses and the wind. The pictures were transformed into black and white and colored with duplex to give all subjects a common colorfulness.

Some years ago Vietnam was considered an insider tip for travelers. Today some areas of this country are already flooded with tourists. In spite of its enormous growth in the last years the country has kept its character. And yet I have never been in a country before that made the "price for growth" so visible.

In January 2015 we had the chance to travel around India for nearly one month. During this trip we met great people, most of them having a hard life and yet being open minded and extremely welcoming. I took the opportunity of those special moments to photograph some of these great personalities. A small exclusive selection you'll find now on this portfolio site.

The people of Cuba struggle hard for a decent every day life. Yet they are full of enthusiasm and lust for life. They love their country, their culture, their friends and are extremely welcoming. I picked out some of those lucky encounters in black and white.

Those who will dance for the "Havana Queens" on stage are part of the best of the best. At their castings only the most talented dancers of the cuban island will compete against each other. They are all professionals and training for one thing only: to be chosen. The stage show is about such a casting, focusing on the young dancer called Coco, attracting the attention of everybody. The dancers tell the story of love, competition and their common goals - all at once. Coco and the group are diving in various cuban environments just in order to achieve clarity about their feelings.

Our imagination of Tuscany in Italy is heavily conditioned by thousands of pictures shot by thousands of photographers – pictures of medieval houses and churches, tiny vineyards on smooth little mounds, cypresses in the background, romantic landscapes in faded colours filled with uncounted chains of hills. I have taken my own approach to this overphotographed but still impressive landscape with frozen moments of harsh black and white contrasts found in the early morning or late afternoon.

With the conversion of old industry areas into exhibition halls, markets or restaurants the former installations and infrastructure loose their function and survive as decorative elements; I call them "Industry Paintings".

The project StadtGrüsse Lisbon is an attempt to paraphrase the typical pattern of traditional postcards while creating a new category reflecting the atmosphere of the vibrant city of Lisbon.

StadtGrüsse is an attempt to paraphrase the typical pattern of traditional postcards while creating a new category reflecting the atmosphere of the booming district called Zurich West.

On an ordinary Saturday in Zurich - crowded with people on Bahnhofstrasse and on markets, lonesome in less known areas - I was searching for people to capture with my camera.

On the way down from Passo Lucomagno - right across the busy street - I found a little brook creating unique nature paintings with water, iron, bubbles and stones.

Abdullah Ibrahim offered me the unique opportunity to photograph him during his rehearsal and concert in the Horgen church. During his performance I was the only photographer but he did not want me to leave my seat nor to make any movement in order not to disturb his concentration.