Achim Dittrich
Achim Dittrich was born on the 5th of July 1964 in Freiburg in the southwestern corner of Germany. In 1983 he started studying Chemistry at the University of Mainz in Germany and in 1994 he got his Ph.D in Chemistry. After almost 2 years at the University of Leeds (UK), where he had a fellowship, he joined the IT company IBM in 1996 and started his professional career. During the school vacations with his family at the North Sea coast and in the Alps he had gotten to know the landscapes and the nature there with which he became fascinated. This experience, together with the several hiking tours he did in the very north of Sweden and Finland, in British Columbia-Canada and the traveling to the Amazon and the Pantanal in Brazil, got him in touch with Landscape - and Wildlife Photography and pursued this passion for years before the job changed his priorities. After years of absence he started again with photography - primarily of wildlife in the area of Germany where he lived in 2011 and won his first award in a competition in 2012. In 2016 he attended a photography workshop in Iceland to fulfill a childhood dream and learned about the secrets of landscape photography from the ground as well as from the helicopter from a world class landscape photographer, the Swede Hans Strand. In 2017, Achim Dittrich attended another workshop with Hans Strand in Greenland. This time it was about landscape photography on land, on a boat as well as aerial photography from a helicopter. It was that year that he decided to register as a part time freelance photographer, something he had dreamed of for a long time. In the winter of 2017 to 2018 he discovered the treasures of the National Park of the Delta of Axios – Loudias – Aliakmon west of Thessaloniki. Whenever he visits his family in Thessaloniki and finds the time, he drives to the deltas to observe and photograph the wildlife there - particularly various bird species. In autumn 2019, he attended a workshop at Meteora and the Pindos mountains to get to know these areas too. His solo exhibition “A glimpse of Nature: from Greenland to Greece“ at Govedarou Art Gallery in Thessaloniki in Feb. / Mar. 2020 is his first exhibition.
Interview of Achim Dittrich at Polis Magazino What is photography for you? a form of personal expression? A need for creation, communication, or something else? AD: Photography is indeed a form of personal expression, a true passion. It gets me out into nature, into landscapes where I feel completely by myself and where I have the chance to experience magic moments or special encounters with animals in their habitat. How would you characterize yourself as a photographer? AD: I believe I am a patient and persistent photographer. If I spot a scenery or a particular animal I may come back and try to get an even better photo in case I’m not satisfied with my first results. Also I like to explore landscapes and habitats in depth, sometimes for years to get a comprehensive collections of photos that express the richness of that particular area. What is the source of your inspiration? AD: The beauty of nature – in all aspects, to experience magic moments and my respect for wild animals in their habitats With which personality of Art world would you like to come into a dialogue and on what subject? AD: I’d like to come into a dialogue with Art Wolfe and Frans Lanting on their projects and with Sebastiao Salgado on black and white photography Would you consider to express yourself with any other form of art besides photography? AD: If I had a talent for it, I would like to draw – just with pencils on paper If you chose a different era to live and create what would it be and how do you think you would express yourself artistically? AD: Although the life of an artist at the beginning of the 20th century was certainly tough, I would have liked to be a painter before the 1st World War (without being affected by it of course) What is the relation of the creator to his work? AD: The work is the way a creator expresses him – or herself. I like to express my fascination of the beauty and the variety of nature What are your future plans? AD: Explore the natural treasures of Greece – especially in the north of the country further across the different seasons and further on to explore the wider Balkan and it’s wild nature. I’d like to show these treasures in further exhibitions and publications like articles and books with the particular emphasis on showing the beauty of nature to children. I’m convinced that we will only protect what we have learned to love.
GERMANY
Mountain forest in the back light
Orchid on a spring meadow
Leave floating on the golden stream surface
Light at the end of the path
Old tree in a winter landscape
Rose hip on leaves
A seed head - macro image
Branch with ice shell
Butterfly and fly on grass ears
Male common blue butterfly
Six-spot burnets on a red clover blossom
A forest path on a September morning
Coral mushroom in a pine forest
Frog couple
Grim looking toad
Look me in the eyes little fly
Baby grasshopper on a grass blade
Young toadstool mushroom with a leaf
Full moon over the river Rhine
GREENLAND
Greenland I: Magical light in a mid-summer night
Arctic fulmars on the cliff of an iceberg
Floating Ice in the Disco Bay
Greenland II: Magical light in a mid-summer night
Iceberg in the light of a mid-summer night
GREECE
Golden reflections in rocky stream basins
Wild gorge in the Pindos Mountains
Morning mood on an original mountain river
Sandstone rocks of MetĂŠora
Roots of a mighty plane tree
Tortoise portrait
Fire salamander portrait
Common wall lizard portrait
Snail climbs up a plant stem
Portrait of a collared dove
Great crested grebe portrait
Cormorant in its element
Dragonfly on a reed
Male scarlet dragonfly
Sunrise over the thermal gulf
Reflections of the setting sun shimmer like embers
Common Shel duck family passes sleeping flamingos
Grey heron still life
Evening mood over the Aegean
Pelican in the light of the rising sun
Starlings on a barbed wire
ITALY
A mystical light on a magical night
ICELAND
Glacial ice surface
Hรกifoss waterfall
View over the Fossรก dale
BrĂşarfoss cascades
The colored mountains of Landmannalaugar
Colored Water Mountains
Glacier water colors
5 G.PAPANDREOU St. THESSALONIKI, GREECE www.govedaroufineartgallery.com
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