Here is Kristian Schmidt exclusively for FOXYLAB New York.
I was directing commercials and music videos first, allot of the productions were made in Cape Town, I always had an affinity towards wildlife so I went on many safaris. A friend said the pictures I took were quite good so I decided to exhibit them in New York; they were sold out the first night. I realised that kind of “work” was much more fun and would take me on non stop adventures so I took that direction instead. I think directing has helped me put that cinematic feeling in my pictures.
Every shoot that I do is first an adventure I want to take, if it sells it’s a bonus, all of them have had their magic: obviously whales and giant Manta rays feel like you are on a different planet; Africa has its big cats and sunsets. As long as you are doing it with the right people it’s always incredible.
I think all these artists are phenomenal. In my case I try to not look too much at others work because I know I get subconsciously influenced and I’ll start slightly doing similar traits. When I went completely out of the box that is when my career took off, I’ve been doing exactly what comes to my mind and usually with wildlife I never get what I had imagined but something different that is as good, it’s allot of luck and planning. If I can attribute any of my inspiration it’s from living in Japan, their sense of aesthetics has given me allot of ideas for my work.
We work with some of most amazing professional people so we haven’t had too many issues. One challenging shoot that comes to mind was with the Manta Rays in Kona, the model was weighed down 40ft underwater at night time and we gave her oxygen in and out between each shot, there was allot of current and very cold, she was incredible and very professional but it was scary if something went wrong. Luckily the shoot came out beautiful.
The most important to me is that everything we shoot is real, otherwise it’s no fun. It’s the experience for us that we want and I think it comes out in the pictures, we show videos of every shoot at our galleries to show it’s real. Also sales wise for my pieces I don’t think they would sell as well if they were photoshopped.
It’s always evolving, I love any type of aesthetic’s, I think it all merges in visuals. Wildlife , fashion , beauty , landscapes.
Can you share with us your future projects? What comes next?It’s giving creators a chance to actually get income in an industry that is almost impossible to live well on, it’s very exciting and limitless. We are going to see an explosion in creativity.
I am doing a shoot with Lava that is going to be interesting. We are playing with some weightless shoots in zero G, anything that is hard to do that seems like a good adventure I am up for. I have allot of exhibitions coming that I am trying to use projections for mixed with the physical pieces. We are also opening an adventure club that is oriented towards the luxury market where I will be taking guests on all my trips that are difficult to get to.
