people & lifestyle photography

May 2016

Christian Gaul

Brazil & Germany

"I’d rather be sailing, but I’m focused on getting that "42 footer" for our next trip so here I am trying to tell you how photography is a part of my life. Example: The Story Before the Image.

Two years ago I took some vacation with my family in Amsterdam and we decided to take on AirBnB for a change. It was a great apartment with an acoustic guitar hanging on the wall, which is what I need. I never met the owners - all internet.

Now cut to this: a few weeks ago, while I was in Rio photographing another story, The Guardian, in collaboration with Johnnie Walker, got in touch with me to shoot a few portraits of Dutch artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn - known for painting large areas of favela communities around the world. After the shoot, which came out great, we headed to the nearest pub to celebrate and chat a bit, which led to me talking about my lovely time in Amsterdam.

And that led to us to finding out that I stayed, coincidentally, at Dre’s home while I was on my vacation. Imagine our reactions upon this fun discovery! It was pretty overwhelming, I must say. Photography has this effect on me - it connects me with all kinds of people who are somehow all a part of the image."

Visit Christian's website for more information.