Alan Schaller - Intro

The Liberation of Limitation

Alan Schaller
There is something in me that drives me out there.
Alan Schaller
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Narrative and reduction – two essential factors that are the hallmark of street photographer Alan Schaller’s visual signature. In dense, atmospheric images he manages to capture life in all its shapes and shades.

Outstanding images are never a matter of chance. They require dedication, courage and the will to do whatever it takes to see a vision realised. As an icon of contemporary black and white photography, Alan Schaller’s distinctive visual style works as a universal language understood around the world. Equipped with the Leica M10 Monochrom, Alan wandered grey and rainy London, shedding light on the liberating quality he finds in limitations.

 

Alan Schaller - Content
It’s really nice to see people enjoy my pictures. But ultimately I do it for myself.
Since the beginning of his career, Alan Schaller decided not to look for colours, using a focal length of 24mm for the most part. These decisions helped him develop an eye for the interplay of light, geometry and humans.

“Experimenting will only get you to a certain point.”

To decide early on how and what he wanted to shoot, ignoring all other photographic opportunities, has enabled Alan to define his own niche and learn how to master it.

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“You need courage to know what your direction is.”

The concept behind an image is as important to a photographer as the image itself. Only a body of work that shows consistency creates recognition.

A camera justifies you doing things that you would otherwise never do.
Whether pedestrians in London, dogs in Paris or pigeons in New York, the difference in Schaller’s images is to be found only in the changing surroundings, but never from changing his style of shooting.
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You have to go out and engage. Only then will it come to you.
Alan Schaller’s images often seem to convey a deeper message, but don’t expect an exact explanation from the photographer – he likes to leave them open to interpretation.