Street Photography in Germany: Photographers and Collectives

Street Photography in Germany: Who is out there? Who are the movers and shakers in the German street photography scene?

Meet 29 amazing German street photographers active and 10 German street photography collectives and initiatives. Learn about their work and their projects.

Street Photography in Germany: 29 Photographers

I was interested in showcasing photographers who

• are active street photographers
• live in Germany or are German
• a solid street photography portfolio
• well connected in the street photography scene

I was not interested in writing one of those “Top 10: The best street photographers in Germany”. My aim was to show the diversity of the German street photography scene.  So yes, you will find the famous German street photographers and also those who are less well known. I’m grateful for all the recommendations I received by fellow street photographers. These tips were a great help establishing the list.

German street photographer is used in the broadest sense. It means lives and works in Germany and / or is of German nationality. 

This article is updated on a regular basis. Adding new names means of course removing names as well. There are a lot of wonderful German street photographers who are not on this list.

The German street photography scene is evolving and several collectives, initiatives and a magazine were founded in recent years. I’m very happy to feature these street photography collectives and initiatives as well.

Many thanks to all who have contributed to this article.

Editorial note: The list of German street photographers is in alphabetical order on a first name basis.

Achim Katzberg • Mainz

“Being specialized in architecture and documentary photography as well as weddings and events in Mainz and the Rhein-Main Region, street photography is a kind of uncommissioned, free program for me.

Street photography allows me to reflect my great love for people and life in general, as well as my fascination for architecture and design. I love to show people in the urban environment in strong compositions, preferring minimalistic urban graphics.” Website

Alex Pfeiffer • Berlin

“Street photography to me is a constant challenge adapting to an unpredictable and ever changing environment. I see my work as an artistic approach to social documentation of of a fast changing society.”

Bernd Schäfers • Cologne

“Photography is some sort of meditation for me. Being with the moment as it unfolds, just observing, not judging. I try to shoot anything that catches my interest, either emotionally or intellectually. I like to document these moments discreetly without interfering or changing them.

I prefer to work alone or with one or two good friends. The buzz and hype about street photography is rather a turn off for me.” Website

Birka Wiedmaier • Istanbul

“Street photography to me is to be with a moment. Seeing the beautiful or the weird and in my case photographing humans that interest me. I consider myself as an observer with photography being the meditation allowing me to be in this very moment.

There is no need for clear cut rules. We all see the world differently and I simply follow my instincts.” Website

Christian Reister • Berlin

“In recent years I have mostly done night photography. Black and white, blurry, grainy, raw. The Berlin nightlife and and what remains of the night. Very direct without any fuzz. Sometimes I go out on purpose to shoot or I just have my little cam with me when roaming the streets, cruising bars and clubs.”

Christian Reister is a an ex-member of the photography collectives Seconds2Real and neunplus, founder and curator of Fenster61 and a blogger at obstundmuse.com. Website

Efi Longinou • Berlin

„I’m an actress currently living in Berlin. I discovered photography for years ago in Greece as a means to express myself artistically. It is my new passion ever since.

To me acting and taking images share the same roots: curiosity and observation. For me the streets are a stage with me observing people and trying to catch a special moment. I follow my instincts. In this way discovering the world of photographic expression little by little I eventually enhance my artistic repertoire.“

Efi Logginou is a member of Intercollective. Instagram

Fabian Schreyer • Ausgsburg

„Life is the best storyteller. These stories can be found in the streets, waiting to be discovered and retold in an artistic and skillful way. Driven by light and a lust for life, fascinated by humor, poetry and the surrealism of the ordinary, I try to catch those moments that I feel to be worth preserving.“

Fabian Schreyer is a founding member of the international street photography collective „The Street Collective“, curator of the Italian German street photography project Via!, curator of the Flickr group Street Sequence  and curator of the facebook group TSC Public projects. Website

Giulia Thinnes • Berlin

“Photography has an influence on my life, and my life influences my photography. It’s a way of life and it’s my way to see the world and to get to know myself. While doing this, I’m turning my inner world outside. I don’t know whether it’s good what I’m doing, but I love doing it.”

Giulia is a member of the streetphoto.lu collective, co-organizer of the Luxembourg Street Photography Festival and is studying photography at the Ostkreuzschule in Berlin. Instagram

Guido Steenkamp • Berlin

“A good street pic shows the extraordinary in the mundane. A happy coincidence, a small miracle in our daily life. Personally I do not care too much about images, where there is an obvious interaction between photographer and subject.“

Guido Steenkamp is a member of the Italo-German street photography project VIA. Website

Hans Severin • Hannover

“I like people and their stories. I’m constantly observing the world around me, never looking for the perfect image though. A good street photograph is both emotionally touching and entertaining. For me street photography is a passion. Website

Heike Frielingsdorf • Cologne

“Taking pictures means for me wandering around, observing and immersing myself in my surroundings, capturing moments that appeal to me on an emotional level. Often everyday occurrences attract me. Situations that seem to be ordinary and yet create a very unique cosmos. Images that tell stories, that make people’s dreams, longings and concerns palpable and quite often reflect life in all its absurdity.” Website

Holger Biermann • Berlin

“The city is my studio. Here I walk and take pictures. Not exactly sure what I’m doing.“ Website

Kay von Aspern • Wien

“I’m an observer. I try to make images out of what I perceive to be special moments – usually from a little distance. These special moments happen most of the time in public spaces. That is why my work is considered to be street photography. I like it when elements in my pictures are communicating. These elements can repel or attract each other, or can have a balanced relationship. Initially, I do not work on particular themes. Yet I do sequence my work in series.”

Kay von Aspern is a founding member of the optic nerve street photography collective . Website

Marco Larousse • Hamburg

“Telling a story in a single photograph is the challenge that motivates me. Beyond the artistic value of digital and analogue street photography, preserving and documenting the day to day life for future generations is for me of extreme importance.”

Marco Larousse is a curator and founder of “Street Photo & Photographer” of the week für Photofocus, he also produces the podcasts “Photography Inspiration” and “Mirrorless”. He is an admin and founder of the  The Analog Street Photography Group on Flickr. Website

Mario Cuic • Munich

“I leave it to the audience to evaluate my work. The viewer’s ability to read my images certainly depends on his and her visual education.”

Mario Cuic is an member of the former Seconds2Real collective. Website

Martin U Waltz • Berlin

Street photography to me is foremost a reflection on the human condition in urban space. I value emotion higher than juxtaposition. I’m less interested in single images, I usually work in projects and series.”

Together with Siegfried Hansen and Marco Larousse Martin is the editor of “The German Street Photography Site” and the curator for the German Street Photography Festival. Website

Mette Welm • Hamburg

“Street photography to me is about being fully focussed and observing the world around me carefully. A perfect occasion for me to wind down. And I’m happy about the occasional good photo I might get out of this. I’m intrigued with capturing these special moments, that are obvious to everyone and yet so easily overlooked.” Website

Michael “Monty” May • Iserlohn

“Working for more than 25 years as a staff photographer for a German newspaper, I am obviously not a pure-blooded street shooter, more a crosser between street and documentary photography with the focus on social documentation.
Referring to SP I generally believe, if you put reality just a little bit aside, you will find a lot of absurdities and….humour.”

Michael “Monty” May is a founding member of the international Observe Collective, member of the Italian German street photography project VIA and organizer of the street photography festival “Observations” in Iserlohn, Germany. Website

Nicole Struppert • Munich / London

“Street Photography for me is to find the beauty in the everyday life. It doest have to be always an exciting moment, it also could be a might be boring scenery, which then becomes a document of our time. Therefore, I try to concentrate just on a few essential elements in my composition.”

Nicole is also the founder, editor and curator of the Website WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY. Personal Website

Oliver Krumes • Berlin

“There can’t be enough sunshine for kind of street photography like. I’m looking for those moments when a mundane wall becomes art or a subway exit turns into a catwalk. Making images that a worth a chat in a coffee shop with like minded photographers.

For me street photography is an exercise in meditation – may be not leading to nirvana – yet allowing experiences that I would have had without street photography.” Website

Patrick Wendt • Hanoi

“Street photography is my window.
There are no obligations and no orders. It forces me to stay curious and keeps me connected to what surrounds me.” Instagram

Paulus Ponizak • Berlin

“For me street photography is a passion. Observe people and making photography out of these special moments fascinates me. My work relies heavily on contrast and the playful interaction of light and shadows.”

Paulus Ponizak is iso.null30 (Paul**) on Instagram and founder of the @intercollective collective. Website

Sabine Mondorf • Cologne

“Street photography allows me to recharge my batteries while roaming freely through the streets. It is just me and my camera. Observing the people around me mindfully , I’m capturing images, that future viewers might see as interesting or as touching. Street photography makes me happy – it is a truly addictive activity, in the best possible way.” Instagram

Siegfried Hansen • Hamburg

“I try to rediscover the urban cosmos by creating unique images following the aesthetics of randomness .”

Siegfried Hansen is a member of the iN-PUBLIC collective. Website

Skander Khlif • Munich

“You can do Street Photography everywhere, literally just around the corner. You can do it while walking, relaxing, laughing, observing or admiring. At times you can even create a piece of art that way.” Website

Steffi Löffler • Munich

“With my images I want to transport emotions and evoke questions.” Instagram

Torsten Köster • Stuttgart

“Street photography is basically just a term for photography of men made space. I like to cover this space with all its elements and in all possible ways, aesthetically pleasing, abstract or humorous.

On the the street I follow my mood and my instincts. There is little concept or preconceived ideas. It is in the editing process when I streamline things into series and projects.

Humans don’t always play main role in my images, some are even void of human figures, yet the human element is always present. Website

Torsten Schumann • Berlin

“I photograph scenes and things in an urban environment. I often ask myself how these things came to be and what is happening on the streets.”

Torsten Schumann’s photobook “More Cars, Clothes and Cabbages” was published with Peperoni Books in 2016. Website

Ying Tang • Cologne

“I am always interested in life, how people living in the different cultures, what they do on the street fascinates me. Any situation which involves people I like to take pictures.” Website

German Street Photography Collectives and Groups

Berlin Street Photography Club • Berlin

Berlin Street Photography Club, or BLNSPC for short, is a newly formed collective based in Berlin composed of 13 members: Alberto Ferrero, Alessandro Iotti, Chris Morgan, Frankie Casillo (image), Jonas Kuck, Kalle Krahmer, Dominik Bo, Daan Dam, Kelvin Bugler, Davide Soldarini, Ama Split, Riky Kiwy and Franz Mangel. Not taking themselves too seriously and straying away from current trends in photography, each member of this internationally comprised collective brings their own unique vision to show you a piece of life around the streets of Berlin. Website

Bremen Street Collective • Bremen

The “Bremen Street Collective” was founded October 2019 by Dennis Gloth and Sven Hallmann and has grown to 9 members within 3 weeks. The photographers Dennis Gloth, Ferya Gülcan, Steffen Alphei, Andi Stark, Sascha Röhrs, Filippo Galeazzi, Andreas Mueller, Kjell Reinsch and Sven Hallmann aim to advance the street photography scene in Bremen. Website

Collateral Eyes • Frankfurt area

Collateral Eyes is a collective of professional and semi-pro photographers in Frankfurt/Main and the surrounding Rhein-Main area. They aim to document life on the street, share their passion for street photography with others, and welcome visiting street photographers to their special corner of Germany. The founding members are Achim Katzberg, Tobias Löhr, Lukas Merz, Ivan Slunjski, Matt Finazzo and Frank Meffert. Website

Soul of Street • Street Photography Magazine

We are Reiner Girsch, Marc Barkowski, Jens von Ewald and Horst Frommont, four photographers and the editors of  Soul of Street, the German street photography magazine

We think that street photography is the most honest and truthful form of photography. Showing the unfiltered raw emotions of the street, street photography reaches people in their core without having to bend or twist reality.

Our goal is to help establishing street photography in Germany, to support and inspire German street photographers and to promote networking within the German street photography scene. Website

Munich Street Photography Collective • Munich

The Munich street photography collective are Hannah Radek, Felix Albrecht, Steffen Horak, Daniel Tschitsch, Sebastian Hermann, Daniel Booth, Mark Volz (image), Philipp Merz and Stefan Hellweger. Munich Street aims to make street photography more accessible in Bavaria by organising photo walks among others. Website

Street Photography Cologne • Cologne

The Street Photography Cologne Collective was founded in 2017 with the ambition to promote Street Photography as a contemporary art form. The collective provides an open platform for street photographers from Greater Cologne to promote their subject or project based work to the public and to get in touch with the local or national photography and art scene.

Members are Sven Hoffmann, Andreas Ott, Oliver Kühnel, Christopher Reuter, David Shokouhbeen, Yonca Sicimoglu, Ulrike Hauswirth and Roy Fochtman. Website

Off Perspective • North Rhine-Westphalia

Off Perspective was founded in late 2018 by Reiner Girsch (Soul of Street), Jens von Ewald (strassengeier) and Daniel Schilling (street0231), all based in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2019 Sabine Mondorf joined Off Perspective . The goal is to bundle their same passion and have a lot of fun on the streets. Off Perspective focuses on project work and shooting in the street together. Website

Nuernberg Unposed • Nuremberg

Originating from a local instagram project, we want to bring our love for street photography to the world, serve as an information and contact point and help to connect the German street photography community more closely. The members are are: Jolanta Dworczyk, Christoph Lotter, Wolfgang Mertens, Christian Meyer, Virginie Pommel, Gerald Prechtl, Ralph Purrucker and Sebahat Sahverdi. Website

Unposed Society Hannover • Hannover

We are seven guys from the Hannover area with a passion for street photography: André Weißgerber, Sascha „Berberbeard“ Bird, Guido Klumpe (Foto), Sven Protz, Filipp Romanovskij, Mirco Gabrie and Antony Roefs. Several times a year we offer photo walks and photo workshops to the wider public, thus sharing our passion for street photography.  Coming to Hannover? Please get in touch via Instagram. 

The German Street Photography Site • Platform and Hub

The German Street Photography Site was founded by the photographers Siegfried Hansen, Marco Larousse and Martin U Waltz who are also the team behind the 1. German Street Photography Festival.

The German Street Photography Site wants to create awareness for the art form street photography. It aims to be a promotion and information hub for street photography in Germany. Website

Final Thoughts

When looking a the German street photography scene, two things come to mind:

1. The German Street Photography scene is actually more an international one. Many photographers featured are not coming from Germany originally, some are woring abroad and others are organised in internal street photography collectives.
2. Street photography in Germany is evolving and organising itself. Most of the street photography groups in Germany featured here were founded in the last two or three years.

It will be very interesting to see where the German street photography scene is going from here.