Fotografen und Filmemacher Podcast - Fotografie und Film · Anja Rätzel & Edmond Rätzel - edmond-raetzel.de

#576 - Interview mit Krisztina Fazekas - So findest du deine künstlerische Stimme als Fotograf

·50 min·4 clips

Krisztina sold her car to buy a ticket to New York, launching her international photography career.

1. The Fotografen und Filmemacher Podcast features host Edmond Rätsel in conversation with Krisztina Fazekas, a photographer and videographer based in Düsseldorf. 2. Krisztina Fazekas is a Hungarian-born journalist and photographer who studied media and communication in Budapest and later earned a master's degree in photography at the University of Westminster in London. 3. The episode's core question is how a photographer with 30 years of international experience learns to treat photography as a commercial business rather than a craft or personal project. 4. Fazekas began photography at 17 while working as a newspaper reporter in Budapest, where taking photographs was part of the journalistic role. 5. A political change in Hungary that eliminated freelance journalism positions led her to sell her car, buy a plane ticket, and move to New York at age 27, living initially with two friends in New Jersey. 6. In New York she spent nearly four years studying at the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography, and was selected for the School of Visual Arts Summer Artist Residency Program. 7. A book called Photography Now, which she received while in New York, introduced her to contemporary gallery photography including the work of Gregory Crewdson and prompted a complete rethinking of her artistic approach. 8. She applied to master's programs at Brooklyn College and the University of Westminster; when Brooklyn College deferred its photography program, she chose London. 9. In London she completed the master's degree in one year and staged five or six exhibitions, describing the artistic environment as exceptional while finding the city's lifestyle less compelling than New York's. 10. After returning to Budapest she worked in internal communications at the Budapest airport while simultaneously running a 15-to-20-square-metre gallery in an artist's house where she mounted six international exhibitions in one year by arranging cheap art transport between London and Budapest. 11. She relocated to Düsseldorf after marrying a German engineer she met at the airport, describing Düsseldorf as a city of 600,000 that is large enough to be a city but navigable by bicycle. 12. In Düsseldorf she runs Creative Focus, her own photography and videography business offering visual branding and creative direction, alongside CVPix, a Swiss photography franchise specialising in application and business portraits. 13. She describes portrait photography as her preferred discipline, characterising each session as building a brief but intense relationship where she 'can look into their soul,' and notes that subjects often linger in her studio because they are reluctant for the session to end. 14. A personal documentary series called 'Faces of Friedrichstadt' focuses on long-term residents of her Düsseldorf neighbourhood, with the first subject being a woman named Sabine. 15. Rätsel states directly that Fazekas's artistic talent is insufficient for commercial success in a market where Düsseldorf is 'full of good photographers,' framing marketing and customer acquisition as the primary business skills needed. 16. The business coaching changes Fazekas credits most include adopting a customer management system, restructuring her website, and replacing unsolicited proposals with a two-stage consultation process: a first meeting and an advisory meeting before any offer is sent. 17. Her website produced an inquiry within one month of launch and subsequently generated her first four-digit sales figures without any additional outbound marketing. 18. On AI, both host and guest agree that only trained photographers possess the technical vocabulary to prompt AI image generators with sufficient specificity, and that AI-generated images will not displace photography clients who value professional service. 19. The interview is conversational and warm, with Fazekas speaking fluent German as a third language alongside Hungarian and English; the presence of a dog and occasional background noise give the episode an informal, candid quality. 20. The episode suits German-speaking photographers and videographers who are navigating the transition from creative practice to commercial business, particularly those with strong artistic credentials but limited marketing infrastructure.

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