Moody Moments - Paul H?ttemann

The genre of reportage and documentary photography lives above all from unique moments that you can probably never experience again. Paul H?ttemann aka huettehuette is a young photographer from Berlin and captures moments since 2018, among others at concerts of Lena Meyer-Landrut or Wincent Weiss. He was discovered by Paul Ripke and got the incredible chance to turn his passion into a profession.

- Paul H?ttemann in an interview with Melissa Stemmer

1. How did you get into photography?
I came to photography by chance. I studied economics in Mainz, graduated and 1-2 months later there was the wedding of a team colleague who asked me if I would like to film it. I bought a real camera for it and at first it was really just about filming. Photography only came six months later. It was the same here because a friend who designs and produces bikinis asked me. I then had a shoot with her in Mallorca and I would see that as the starting signal for photography. That was in February 2018 and that's how I stumbled into photography.

2. Who or what inspires you?
I have to say I'm not the inspirational type. I only follow people on Instagram who I know personally and not other photographers whose pictures I just think are beautiful but who I don't know. Kolja Eckert, for example, "inspires" me quite a lot, but not so much in an "inspirational" way, but rather that I admire his work. With each of his shots, I don't really know how he did it. For example, how the light was set or the setting. I think that's super cool. This is one of the photographers I really admire at the moment, but inspire is the wrong word because this type of photography is not my style. I tend to work with natural light).

4. What do you want to show in the reports?
With regard to the tour with Lena, I want to keep everything as real as possible. Capture the moment as it really happens. That's also the beauty of the job, that places and opportunities come up that you don't even see as a "normal person". For example, how the artists prepare or how the "off-days" are organised. I want to capture that and show how these intimate moments unfold from my point of view.

5. What is important in your reportage and concert shoots? Do you plan a lot?
I'm not that much of a "planner" because I'm not that much of an "inspiration guy" either. I don't put together "moody boards" or want to take a specific shot. I do everything spontaneously, just as it happens, just as the light and the location is. As I focus on the moments, you can't plan much. That's why my reportage shots are all about being in the right place at the right time. You get a feeling for that at some point.

9. Video or photo? Where do moments play a bigger role for you? 
I think by photo, because it's more difficult to convey an emotion to the viewer with a picture. With video, of course, you still have the sound and the music. With video recordings, you can hear everything that happens before, after and around it. With a photo, there is only a still image, which is why moments play a more important rather than a bigger role.

10. Apart from documenting the lives of others, you yourself share your life with your followers. How important is that for you and your work?
It is not important now for my work itself. I strictly separate the two as well. What I post in my feed is never me, it's my work. In my stories, I do my bullshit partially as I feel like it. I don't think my face has any place in my feed because I'm a photographer after all, but you can show it in the story. That's why it's not super important, but of course you build up a community and that's fun. If it's a photo book, for example, it's nice if lots of people buy it in the end. And you come into contact with one or two people yourself. That's why I think it's important in this respect, because you should always know who the person behind the pictures is.

More from Paul H?ttemann

you can find his most recent work on his Instagram channel or on his website.