germany Feb 2012

Established in 2010, Berlin based full service agency AprilMay manages national and international productions for advertising and fashion clients such as Skiny, Marie Claire, QVEST, Axe, Ana Alcazar, Dawid Tomaszewski, McCafé, C&A, Galeria Kaufhof and Otto.

From production management to cost estimation, art buying, casting, location scouting and set building, AprilMay offers clients a broad range of production related services. 

Based in Berlin, Lunik is a full service production company for domestic and international shoots. Services include photo production, location scouting and casting all over the world. 

Recent clients include:

• Stars Of Football Arjen Robben shot by Ruud Baan (Munich).
• Rammstein press campaign shoot with P.R. Brown (NYC).
• Prevention Magazine editorial shoot 'Seize the Gray' with Mark Holthusen (Berlin).
• Deutsche Telekom 'Entertain' shoot and 'Telekom Cloud' campaign with Antje Merkel (Ljubljana/ Slovenia).
• Reebok ZigTech S/S11 campaign with Ruud Baan featuring Iker Casillas (Madrid) // Erin Andrews (Indianapolis).
• Deutsche Telekom 'De-Mail' shoot with Markus Rössle (Berlin).
• Rammstein video 'Mein Herz brennt' by Eugenio Recuenco.

Clients include Deutsche Telekom, BMW, Reebok, JFK Magazine, Comos Direkt, Sparkasse, Rammstein, DHL and eBay.

During 2011 Contra once again showed that nearly nothing is impossible.

Its projects went from pictures of an orangutan for British Airways with photographer Jenny van Sommers at Wyatt Clarke, to climbing the Rockies for Engelhorn Sports with photographer Frederik Clement.

For Allianz insurance Contra helped Garry Simpson at Vue to defeat the Atlantic Ocean and enter the production halls of Airbus in Toulouse, while for the BMW i3 and i8 the company organised a photo shoot in Chicago with photographer Thomas von Salomon.

Last but not least, Contra's Chinese baby - Contra Service Productions China - produced the 'Peoples Car' campaign for Volkswagen.

Hamburg-based First Site Locations is specialised in locations in northern Germany but also provides full production services.

Recent productions included:

• Interhyp photo campaign shot with Gulliver Theis (production and location scouting).
• Interhyp film shoot with Wolff Brothers (archive locations).
• Streetone (archive locations).
• Marge Solar with Jo van den Berg (archive locations).
• Bosch shot with Partice Lange (archive locations and location scouting).
• Thomy commercial film with Neue Sentimental Film (location scouting).
• RTV photo shoot with Gulliver Theis (production and location scouting).

Other clients include brands such as Lufthansa, Mumm, DEKA, Brigitte, Panasonic, Men's Health, Krombacher, Dacia, Mini, Kettler, Zuricher, Knorr, Severin, Braas, Siemens, Triumph, Deutsche Bank and Eterna, photographers including Carsten Görling, Esther Haase, Ralph Hargarten, Michael Heinsen, Reinhard Hunger, Alexandra Klever, Christian Lohfink, Hendrik Nennecke, Darius Ramazani, Gulliver Theis, Stephan Ziehen and Wolfgang Flamisch, and film production companies including Filmproduktion, Vollmilch Commercials, Neue Sentimental Filmproduktion, Nordisch Filmproduktion and Tempomedia Filmproduktion.

Sabine is based in Munich and she specialises in kids fashion and advertising with a big archive of children models available. Sabine works in her daylight rental studio, Skyloftstudio. The location offers a friendly and feel-good atmosphere for children and families, an important element for a successful shoot.

Recent news from Munich-based kids photographer Sabine Duerichen:

• Elefanten Deichmann Shoes winter campaign.
• Conley's kids production autumn/winter.
• Lisette Pour Filles French fashion advertisements.

Visit the website for more information.

Jacob Lindner is an advertising photographer based in Munich. In recent years he has specialised on food and product photography. His daylight studio in Munich has two complete kitchen areas and plenty of cooling storage space for even big food productions.

His work includes imagery for packaging and POS materials. He has an in-house team of experienced food stylists and freelancers and offers complete digital workflow across all camera formats - from small format to high-class studio camera systems. He works mainly for the food industry but also enjoys shooting people and stock photography.

Karl Kramer's latest work was shot for Bodywear with art director Ingo Götze and fashion editors Martina Metzner and Tessa Saueressig at the five-star Luxury Hotel Sofitel Munich Bayerpost. Sebastian acted as his assistant. Models: Bora, Nala and Katharina, all Izaio Models, Berlin. Styling: Sybille Oberschelp, Phoenix. Hair and make-up: Aysu. Products from: Unusual, Falke, Roesch, Mey, Speidel, Wolford, Coco Cavaliere, Nina von C., Stella McCartney,Taha, La Perla, Elle McPherson, Valisère, Aubade, Blush, Calvin Klein, Calida, Escora, Elbeo and Kunert.

Kai Schwabe's passion is food photography. His clients include Kraftfoods Europe, Philadelphia, Jacobs, Tassimo, Alberto, Dr. Oetker and Edeka, who all appreciate his professional approach to briefs and layout along with his technical expertise.

Kai’s 500 m² daylight studio is located in the centre of Bremen. A master of different lighting techniques, he can quickly create a range of subtle moods according to the needs of each client. Working alongside a team of talented food stylists and assistants, Kai develops high quality images that appeal to the appetite.

Visit his website for more information.

International people, portrait, car and advertising photographer Deniz Saylan is based in London and Stuttgart.

He was recently awarded the Merit Award 2012 from BFF (The German Association of Freelance Photographers) for his pictures of the black Lamborghini featured in this Showcase.

He recently photographed:  

• 'G-Class Military Edition' image brochure for Daimler AG.
• Jesper Plougs 'Men's Wear' campaign.
• Daimler 'Golden G-Class' for its 33rd anniversary.
• New BMW 1 editorial in London for RAMP Magazine.
• Fashion editorial in Marakech for U-Knit Magazine.
• 40 years celebration campaign for the United Arab Emirates.

London- and Stuttgart-based photographer Peter Otto focuses mainly on transportation and architecture photography.

His recent work includes:

• A personal project from the Barcelona City of Justice by David Chipperfield Architects.
• The latest Fiat Punto campaign realised in collaboration with Leo Burnett and Rossino & Co.
• Pictures for the annual calendar from Josef Gartner GmbH. 

Visit his website for more information.

As a former art and creative director, Tom Fischer is now completely focused on photography.

Following his roots in advertising, he tells visual stories through his editorial and portraiture work.

Clients include Cesar (Mars), BBDO, Boston Consulting Group, Contitech, Kolle Rebbe, Lawinenstift, SPD, SOS Kinderdörfer, Diakonie, and many more.

Visit his website for more information.

New York-based agency Y&R asked the CGI experts at [zerone] to work on several shots for LandRover. The project includes full CGI studio shots as well as landscape photography with integrated CGI cars.

Fraport, the operating company for Frankfurt Airport, took advantage of CGI technology to place real duty free offerings using an animated indicator board. The animation set-up was chosen to provide quick listings of the products on HD displays. The creative lead was with Ogilvy Duesseldorf.

The Porsche 911 Convertible web special was introduced by an animation done at [zerone] and supervised by the agency BB&K. Beside the fly around animation to show the exterior design and features of the car, [zerone] also created a 360-degree look-around to show off the interior design.

Sublime Postproduction combines a sense for fine aesthetics with a passion for outstanding photography and a loving attention to detail. The company provides tailor-made professional services in the name of excellent photography, applying its profound knowledge in the field of visual arts to grant each of its technically perfect images a strong and unique impression.

The company focuses particularly on transportation, CGI, motion graphics, beauty and people.

Recent jobs include:

• Lamborghini calender 2012 with Anke Luckmann. Agency: Köckritzdörrich.
• GQ cover featuring Mesut Özil with Anke Luckmann.
• VW Transporter with Andreas Hempel.
• ProSieben 'Sturm-vs-Murray' ad with Anatol Kotte.

Clients include Manu Agah, Anke Luckmann, Anatol Kotte, Armin Zogbaum, Conrad Piepenburg, Blinkk, Magnus Winter, Sonja Müller, Det Kempke, Oscar van de Beek, Stefano Morini, Tom Wagner, Tobias Schult, McCann Erickson, Scholz & Friends, Atletico International, Grey Worldwide, DDB and Jung von Matt.

Over the past three years, Hamburg-based retouched has become an established address for post production, specialising in beauty and fashion photography.

The company recently completed commissions for Quality-Magazine, Grazia Italy and Germany, Harper's Bazaar Hong Kong, Annabelle Switzerland, Myself Germany, Qvest, GUHL, More & More, and a campaign for German TV show 'The Voice of Germany'. The company also launched the first issue of its retouched-magazine.

Daniel Steinbrück, founder of retouched, collaborates closely with agencies and photographers to achieve a creative look, using a contemporary and natural approach to translate ideas from raw files. retouched constantly strives to be the most natural beauty and fashion post production company on the market. Its 'before and after' experience has a consistent 'wow' factor and can be admired in selected images on the website.

retouched added new names to its team roster. Check out the website, blog and Facebook page for more information.

Latest jobs and projects by Jennifer Hahn: 

• Vanity Fair Italia - two editorials (booked for prop styling) with photographer Esther Haase.
• Elle with Carsten Kofalk. 
• Qvest, Fault and two editorials for Push It with Dirk Messner.
• Hype with photographer Andra.
• The Rake with Mika Ceron.
• GZ with Reno Ranger. 
• Fashion Gone Rogue with photographer Felix Glasmeyer. 
• Highsnobiety with photographers Daniel Roché and Patrick Houi. 
• Moga - two editorials with Mo Gaff. 
• JPeople with photographers Tobias Schult and Stephan Schramm.

Her latest personal work includes projects with Michael Brus, Carsten Kofalk, Patrick Houi, Felix Krüger, Felix Glasmeyer and Arcin Sagdic. Jennifer's latest advertising clients include Bosch, Möbel Hübner with celebrity Désirée Nick, Bundesministerium, G-Star and CCC.

Established 2009 in Berlin, Grünebergcast is specialised in finding characters and actors for film and photography productions. Beyond the casting archive the company offers street, live, photo and video casting. www.studioberlin.eu is the in-house location for professional castings.

Accomplished projects include:

• Apollinaris with Kajetan Kandler.
• Berliner Pilsener with Esther Haase.
• Bionade with Jotz! Film.
• BMAS with Maak Roberts.
• Commerzbank with Dominik Mentzos.
• Hornbach with Marcus Mueller.
• Maggie with Bubbles Film.
• Mercedes-Benz with Martin Schoeler.
• Müllermilch with Wunderfilm.
• Samsung with Gerhard Linnekogel.

Visit the website for more information.

Located in central Munich, Studio Lichthaus is a beautiful 260m² space with gorgeous natural sunlight streaming through a bank of eight windows.

It is a perfect venue for photo shoots, events and even film shoots, with complete blackout facilities available for any type of shoot.

The company provides tasty home-cooked catering, served at a table that can seat up to 14 people. There is also an extensive library of on-site props, wall sets and flooring, and with Lichthaus' huge list of contacts clients can be assured of everything they'll need for a successful production.

Studio Berlin was founded in the summer of 2010. Located in the centre of Berlin (Lützowstrasse 102 - 104, Berlin Tiergarten, close to the Potsdamer Platz and the Neue Nationagalerie), the fully equipped studio has 260 m² of space and is brightly lit from two sides. Lighting equipment from Profoto and Briese is available to rent in-house, with film equipment rental company MBF a direct neighbour.

Studio Berlin quickly attracted the attention of commercial and editorial clients such as Abro, Allianz, Axel Springer Verlag, Burda Media Verlag, Gruner & Jahr, RTL,  Hornbach, Pro7, Sat1, Sony Music, Steiff, Tush Magazine, Zalando and many others. The list of photographers who have worked in the studio includes Ralph Mecke, Marcus Müller, Gregor Hohenberg, Nela König, Markus Jans, Stephan Ziehen, Stefan Heinrichs, Samy Hart and Paul Wetherell.

Germany’s renowned backdrop rental company www.atelier-grueneberg.de is also in-house.

Visit the website for more information.