German photographer Jörg Brüggemann took off professionally with a personal project titled Same Same But Different in which he documented the backpacker trail in South and Southeast Asia, a land that has turned into a theme park for European mass tourism. With this series he already showed he was able to capture the shaky reality of our modern world with a critical and subjective approach, what is part from his essence. Since then, he has turned every single shot into the perfect combination between sociologic document and art.
As we can see in Metalheads, Tourists vs. Refugees or Same Same But Different your photographic series address global topics. This broad range means that you understand globalization as an opening up to a world of possibilities?
I am an observer of a world that becomes more and more connected. Yes, it is a world of possibilities, but there are dangers, too. Like most things globalization is not generally good or bad but ambivalent. The economic globalization has produced an inequality that is one of the reasons for the migration movement I have portrayed in Tourists vs. Refugees. On the other hand, I see positive effects as well, for example when I look at the global metal scene, a community that spreads across cultures, social classes and religion.
This also leads us to political issues. In Tourists vs. Refugees you document the clash between tourists and the stream of Middle East refugees in the Greek island of Kos; also in Stolen Cars in Takijistan you make evident the stolen luxury cars trade from Germany to this Asian country. How did you come up with these ideas?
Both were initially commissions by magazines. I guess the picture editors assigned me to shoot both stories, because they fitted into the way I look at the world through my images. I don’t distinguish much between personal projects and assignment. Both need the same amount of passion and dedication to make them work. They affect each other, too.
There’s also a strong link with music in your work. Crowded concerts and festivals, the bands, the audience, music equipments, what is seen and what is hidden behind. What is the relationship with music in your life?
I was visually educated by MTV and 90s pop culture. Moving image and music videos were my first love. For me sound and image are strongly connected. My friends all played in bands, but I am really bad at singing as well as playing an instrument. So I started documenting their shows. Metalheads in the end is a reminiscence to our youth. We were hanging out at rehearsal studios and hard-core gigs.
How is it to work in live environment? I can deduce that not planning the scene and getting carried away by chance must have its advantages, but also difficulties.
I am interested in the world, driven by experiences and inspired by life. So working this way is just natural to me. Difficulties are part of all this, getting over them is an essential part of any creative work.
By working with real people, in your photographs it’s inevitable not to invade their privacy. What is people’s reaction when you shoot them? How do you approach others?
By being truthful and openhearted. Most people feel appreciated when you talk to them, show real interest in their life and want to take their picture.
I’m sure there’s been quite a few, but what’s the most memorable or shocking moment you’ve gone through when taking pictures?
Ranking my experiences isn’t something I do. There is beauty and intensity in everything, if you just open up and look closely enough. Seeing a rubber boat with refugees approaching the European shore is definitely a shocking moment, but is it more important than taking the portrait of an office worker in Berlin? I don’t think so. It’s all connected in a way.
Spontaneous, random. How would you describe your identity in photography?
I would add sociological and subjective. Lacking better terms I tend to use ‘author photography’ and/or ‘artistic documentary photography’.
What is the series you’re most proud of?
That changes with time of course, but for now I guess Tourist vs. Refugees, because it is really concentrated, ambivalent and there is an actual political dimension to it. Same Same But Different and Metalheads are both projects of special interest in a small group of people and they are both long-term projects. In contrast to that Tourist vs. Refugees shows a small aspect of global refugee movement that hit the world news and it was photographed in only three days.
