Learn from your defeats and celebrate your victories. This is a very good motto to develop year after year. Yes, I have learned. There were unsuccessful pitches and marketing campaigns that involved too much effort for too little return. Lessons learned and adjustments for 2024 have been made. However, the past 12 months have been primarily marked by the successful completion of major projects. In February, this website had its relaunch. It took me two months to move my internet presence from Wordpress to Squarespace. And it was worth it. Thanks to the simpler operation, I posted twice as many articles in 2023 as in the previous year. In the spring of 2023, I received nominations at the international photo competitions “Sony World Photography Awards”, “Fineart Photography Awards” and the “European Architectural Photography Prize”. After two years of work and over 8,000 photos, I completed my photo documentation of the state capital Dresden in June, and in October, after a year's wait, my photo series ENLIGHTEN was published for Hasselblad. In November, my online store opened, just in time for the opening of the two exhibitions ENLIGHTEN and Cityscape Photography, and immediately became the 4th most popular page on my website. You can read about what else happened here:

Architectural Photography in Winter

We had a few really frosty winter days in 2023. The trees were covered with thousands of crystals and snow bedded the cityscape like a large, white blanket. I love the alienation of the landscape in winter. Everything becomes simpler, details disappear and the concentration is on the characteristics of the architecture. Days with the perfect winter conditions are rare in Central Germany. I was all the more fortunate to have completed two projects for the Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement (Saxon Real Estate and Construction Management) and a freelance photo shoot about the new Environmental Research Center in Leipzig.

Hospitality Portraits

For several years I have been working with Hotelbau Magazin on various contribution formats. Last year, I accompanied three Hotelbau working group meetings with leading hotel chains and industry service providers in Berlin, Frankfurt and Augsburg. This resulted in a series of photos of the heads of the German-speaking hotel industry. Shown here (from left to right) Georg Schmiedel - Managing Director of F&S concept Projektentwicklung, Martina Postner - Interior Designer at Bachhuber Hoteleinrichtung and Christian Hribar - Head of Development at Arabella Hospitality. The portraits were taken in my mobile studio during the conventions. Thanks to the shots with my Hasselblad X2D medium format camera, the portraits impress with a special depth of field and grandiose details down to the last beard hair.

The Special in the Everyday

Even on vacation, the camera stays in my hand. On the way back from the archery course, I notice these wonderful red staircases in a resort near Hurghada. This is how a series of photos was created over several days about the quiet retreats in the Egyptian holiday resort, which is otherwise characterized by animation programs.

Adina Apartment Hotels - Geneva

I had already photographed the first rooms of the Adina Apartment Hotel in Geneva in 2022 in an old boat storage hall. Now the real hotel rooms were also furnished and the work on the facade was almost complete. You can find out more about the many challenges of this shoot in my detailed project description. The weather in particular made the shoot very exciting, as the sun only appeared for a few minutes a day.

BKSP - New Theater Workshops

The shoot started at 8:00 p.m. when the craftsmen left the construction site for a well-deserved evening. Until 1:00 a.m. I documented the empty rooms, undisturbed by the hustle and bustle of the day. After a little sleep, I went out again at 5:30 the next morning and another day followed with photo shoots and drone flights through the building. This time in the middle of the action of the final preparations for the handover of the keys to the Staatstheater Hannover. BKSP Architekten created huge workshops in this building, in which the theater's large stage sets are produced in indirect daylight. The many windows on the north and south facades invite you to take a look behind the scenes and frame the action like the curtains of a theater stage.

Ruben Langer - On a High Line

Ruben is an engineer and one of Germany's best slackliners. In 2023, he ventured to break his third world record. This time, the longest distance covered on a slackline in 24 hours was on the agenda. As an enthusiastic climber, I documented the attempt on the Ferropolis site, where Ruben walked back and forth on his line between two gigantic excavators. Unfortunately, the strong wind that day put a stop to the record attempt. Ruben took it easy. We were already discussing the next ideas for crazy highlining locations on the way back from the shoot.

Seidl & Heinecke Monograph

In 2023, the architectural firm from Saxony-Anhalt commissioned me with a very special task: to photograph 30 architectural projects from the architects' past 20 years of work. This resulted in over 100 photographs of buildings, some of which are several centuries old. Seidl & Heinecke has planned, built, and renovated old castles and churches, medical centers, schools and daycare centers, residential buildings, and administrative buildings in Saxony-Anhalt. The planning for this project was particularly challenging, as up to five buildings per day had to be photographed in the best weather conditions and in coordination with the owners.

Schulz & Schulz - Altscherbitz Hospital

When I started taking photographs 13 years ago, the buildings of this architectural firm were my first conscious point of contact with the subject of architecture. After thematizing several buildings by Schulz & Schulz in independent photo series over the years, I was particularly pleased to photograph my first commissioned project for the firm in 2023. The single-story connecting structure blends in simply and inconspicuously with the existing buildings of the Park Hospital, providing not only more space but also a significant increase in efficiency between the individual stations of the hospital.

One City - Three Schools

This year in Chemnitz, I photographed (from left to right) the secondary school at Richard-Hartmann-Platz by Code Unique Architekten, the Weststraße elementary school by iPro Consult, and the Jakobplatz elementary school by O+M Architekten. I am convinced that architecture subconsciously has a lasting influence on our development as human beings. That's why schools, in particular, always have a special significance for me in their architectural design. The three firms all worked with different approaches on their projects and impressed with a great deal of individuality and functionality.

First Workshop for Photographers

This year I organized my first photo workshop in the region around the Zugspitze. In a small group with close support, I guided enthusiastic amateur photographers to my favorite places around Germany's highest mountain for a weekend. The fact that photography is always subject to the weather and that the composition is based on the light were just some of the many insights my students gained. I am already looking forward to passing on more of my knowledge about successful image design in the coming year and inspiring people to perceive their surroundings with new eyes.

Felix Schoeller Award 2023 - Shortlisted

My photo series “Alternative Living” has been shortlisted in the Sustainability category of the Felix Schoeller Awards 2023. The images deal with a particularly free form of living in a Leipzig-based Wagenburg (a self-organized community living in mobile homes). Architecture in this commune is self-created and subject to constant change and expansion. Therefore, the individuality of the residents is reflected in their accommodations in a particularly authentic way. Since most Wagenburgs in Germany do not own their properties, their existence is unfortunately constantly threatened.

That was my small summary of the many, previously unpublished projects from 2023. Of course, my camera is already running at full speed again for the many photo series that are planned for the new year. And not only that. In the coming months, I will reveal even more about a completely new line of business of mine. Suffice it to say, it will be international!

Are you also planning your projects for 2024 and still looking for an architectural photographer? Then please contact me at info@albrechtvoss.com and we can discuss your project in person.