PEOPLE R
photographed by
Kai Heimberg
Who is Kai Heimberg?
The answer to this question is at the top of my to-do list.
We have to continue with the actual facts: born a long time ago, based in Berlin since 1987, three children, concert promoter, portrait photographer.
Music was your first love and it will be your last?
First love for sure. With all the wonderful experiences and disappointments, as a means of demarcation, self-discovery, celebrating and being sad. We’ll see if she’ll be the last love, too. I am open to a lot and there are so many areas in music that are still closed to my heart and me. I let myself be surprised.
Woodstock or Love Parade?
Is there another alternative? Both would not appeal to me in terms of the music. But since I’ve seen the Love Parade many times, I’d prefer Woodstock.
The money you make is a symbol of the value you create?
Fortunately, I am not dependent on making money with photography. That gives me freedom to do what I like. I don’t have to explain or justify. Money changes everything. I don’t do contract work. When you sell a picture the buyer decides to buy the moment he sees the work. It causes something in the viewer and that is how it gets its value. But I always find it difficult to set a price. I still haven’t developed a routine for that.
What is the ugliest part of the body?
There are interesting people and less interesting people. Looking different than others, not conforming to the ideal of beauty – that’s what makes people interesting to me. A definition of ugliness is therefore difficult. But there is one part of the body that is not particularly attractive in almost everyone: the knees. If someone thinks he / she has nice knees, please let me know.
People are people (Depeche Mode)
Definitely. Sometimes they’re wonderful and sometimes they’re terrible, sometimes lovable and sometimes stupid, sometimes huge and sometimes small. Full of secrets and surprises. In my life there are always phases when I like to avoid people. And then again, I can’t get enough of them. Of course: people are people. (But more importantly: Did DM really use the samples of Einstürzende Neubauten at Hansa Studios?)
Life is like photography; you need the negatives to develop?
Setbacks, defeats and disappointments are a part of life. The older you get, the easier it is to come to terms with it. Such experiences rarely mean the end of the world, even if it sometimes may appear so. They can make you stronger and have a positive influence on your development. However, I can easily imagine a life without these experiences. Always perfect weather, always enough to eat and always feel happy and in love. And of course for everyone. It would be worth a try. And if it doesn’t work, the experience will take us a step further…
My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain? (Helmut Newton)
These are not necessarily the aspects driving me to work as a portrait photographer. Primarily I take photos for myself and rarely get involved in assignments. Actually, I always want to have the last word and don’t like being dictated to by art directors. That doesn’t mean I don’t like working in a creative team. But amusing or entertaining the viewer is never in the back of my mind in my work.
When you photograph a face you photograph the soul behind it? (Jean-Luc Godard)
In most cases that is the goal and of course the high art of portrait photography. Sometimes you need to be close to the person in a special way, sometimes it works spontaneously and unprepared. Personally, I do better when I know the person better. That’s why the conversations before the shoot are very important to me.
What would you grab if your house were on fire?
My dearest people. Everything else is replaceable.
It’s better to burn out than to fade away? (Neil Young)
A powerful and important statement – as long as you are young. But at some point, very slowly and quietly it changes. These two positions are not opposites. They just peel off.
It’s better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than halfway up one you don’t? (Tim Canterbury)
Definitely. There is no good life climbing a bad ladder.
How should we deal with art from bad people?
Difficult question. As the biggest Morrissey fan under the sun it concerns me a lot. It’s like eating meat for me (fits very well here, too). The rejection comes quite unconsciously and in an unspectacular way. Back to art: I reject so many of his statements that I no longer feel the need to hear his music, even though it has been so important to me for almost 35 years. Believe me, it hurts sometimes. In short: art remains what it is. Important, groundbreaking, great, whatever, but I can’t enjoy it anymore.
_Uwe Buschmann (Copy editing Silvia Strauch)
