Coastal Forest

‘A photographic encounter with a tree or a forest is something special. For Ralph von Kaufmann, being well prepared means equipping himself with the bare essentials: the technology - camera and exposure, film and printing options - is the craft he has mastered. Knowing the place where he will be photographing is just as important as checking the weather forecast and the map. He then finds what he is missing in the encounter itself. To enter the place with sensitivity, not only to see and measure the light there, but to feel how it paints the motifs in interaction with wind and air. Ralph von Kaufmann lets the moments take effect on him, each one allowing him to immerse himself more and more in the world in which he wants to take his pictures. To feel and see how a picture is formed from light and motif, and then to capture the moments that he has perceived in front of and around him in such great variety - that is his great art!

Not to have the chance to score a few hits with as many of these moments as possible - no! Consciously capturing the single most striking and valuable ones is his way of creating photographs that make the viewer pause to immerse themselves in these moments.

It is thanks to his way of photographing that we - the viewers of his pictures - are allowed to be in the places, to participate in the photography, to ultimately be a part of this art.’

Oliver Rolf, Platinum