Oliver Raschka is a photographer from Stuttgart, Germany. He studied economics and psychology. As a photographic autodidact he trained himself through numerous workshops with renowned photographers. He loves black-and-white photography, coffee is the drug of his choice, and loud rock music is what he likes. His photographs have been widely published in group and individual exhibitions as well as in international and national journals (e. g. London Independent Photography, Washington School of Photography, Lichtblick School Masterclass, Deutscher Werkbund, Black and White Photography, Schwarzweiss, Adore Noir, Lensculture, F-Stop Magazine, Der Greif, Lenscratch, Opus Fotopreis, Seltmann Fotopreis, German Photographic Academy).
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH AT SEVEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING
No staging, no posing. Snapshots from real life, at home, while playing, after school, at sports, during shopping…
As a silent observer, I feel the daily here and now of my two children. Not as a father, but as a photographer.
A visual sociology, focused on their (individual) physical and mental presence.
For children, life is an adventure every day. But what is it like to be a child? What was it like to be a child? When you don’t have to worry about yesterday or tomorrow? When you just live for the moment?
For adults childhood often seems like a desirable and endlessly ongoing time in life full of love, joy and safety, but from a child’s perspective it is also a roller coaster of emotions, an eternal struggle between the child’s dependence and need for autonomy, self-discovery, fear, happiness, pain, hope and self-doubt. Often the emotional state of a child suddenly changes at a moment’s notice.
But it is everyday life that determines the lives of my children. I try to capture these unique moments in an honest way, as they come up in a natural manner. I don’t ask my sons to pose for me. As I keep a camera on hand as often I can, I am able to record their life in a fluid way.
For me, this long-term project is about the core of (street) photography: to capture the transitory in the contemporary, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary and thus to allow new perspectives on the known and finally to give subjective insights into a young family life that are universal at the same time. So these images are candid — not staged — but always unique.
To view more of Oliver’s work please visit his website.