About

• 1966 born in Duesseldorf, Germany, currently lives in Berlin
• A-levels, training as a photographer, studied film and theater / journalism, examination in Frankfurt a.M. and Berlin
• Freelance photographer, operator in feature film and art, cinema projectionist

• Unit still photographer over 20 years ( www.imdb.com or www.crew-united.com )

  Member of The society of motion picture still photographers www.smpsp.org

  and German Society of Cinematographers BVK www.kinematografie.org

Recent works include Dark, Kleo, Counterpart, Royal Game, The Empress and Constellation.

“I like it when the project requires a specific, differentiated type of photography and you are closely involved in the expected photographic design processes in collaboration with the client. The work is inspiring and at the same time the projects are challenging in terms of aesthetics and content, the film or series can be told in “stills” with photographic curiosity and full passionate commitment to the cause. After all, every film always has a different, new and unique language that you have to deal with in preparation and then quickly “see” on set. Photography that remains in the background, observing and “capturing”. My work is both a need and a happiness.”

Enclosed is such a beautiful essay by screenwriter Hanno Hackfort from the current photo book “still photography” – A selection of “still” photographs from recent years. With wonderful accompanying essays by colleagues, producer and filmmakers who have thought about still photography in general. Published by Geistesblüten.com © 2024 or visit Walter Benjamin Platz 5 10629 Berlin AUTHORS BOOKS ARTISTS

The image in the heart – Hanno Hackfort. Screenwriter of the series “Kleo”, “4Blocks”, “Para-Wir sind King” and “You are wanted”, among others

“I have a picture in my head.”

I don’t know how many times this sentence has come up during our work together over the last ten years or so. It comes up all the time when we’re working on new projects. From the discovery phase at the very beginning of a project to the final versions of the books shortly before shooting begins.Pictures and photos are often the first things we pin up on the wall or whiteboard. Pictures are there even before the first written word. And new ones are constantly being added later on in the process.It is the images, the things that cannot yet be put into words, the feeling, the emotion, that draw us into the stories and shape them step by step. Emotions and not diagrams of act structures or plot points.How something looks, how it feels when you look at it – these are elements that have a direct impact on the creation and development of stories and characters. Why? Perhaps because images, whether on the computer, printed out on paper or even just in the mind, directly target the emotions and address the emotional world in a more complex way than a necessarily limited number of words can. Creativity is fueled in a completely different way.

“Words and pictures – they are like two different animals,” William Eggleston once said in an interview. And even if words are the only tool available to us as screenwriters, we would do well to never forget that we are creating for a visual medium, that the two “different animals” must always go hand in hand.

If you are working on a project solely as an author and have failed to secure a certain say in the further course of work on the project, such as working together with the director on the shooting version, participating in the rehearsals and in discussions with the actors, in the contact with the actors during shooting by watching samples and having the opportunity to make comments or to comment on the editing, so if you hand over your work, your baby, too early and too definitively and are then confronted with the finished product, you are often irritated. A kind of alienation from your own material sets in. The story is the same, the characters are the ones you have thought up, they act (in the best case) according to the plot steps you have planned for them and yet it is no longer your own story. It has moved away from the images you originally had in your heart. Or more precisely, from the emotions that these images generated in you and that have become a story for you in the course of the work process.It is a great stroke of luck when the images that you had in your head, that touched your soul, awaken in you again later when you watch the finished film or series. When the DNA of what you originally imagined in your own images is struck.The pure photographic image, detached from the action, the still photo, is an essence of this. Reduced to what was perhaps once there at the very beginning of the process as the original source, the pure image.

If a still photo manages to evoke this original feeling again, it is a damn valuable gift. It shows that the entire creative process, from the initial idea to the final evaluation of the film or series, was supported by a common understanding, a consistent vision. However, this is only possible if everyone involved in the process has the ability and sensitivity to empathize with this original vision. Into the original, central idea, into the image in the heart, which then becomes an image for the viewer.

Kleo – TV Series – all episodes – Zeitsprung pictures GmbH – Netflix

Achtsam Morden – TV Series – all episodes – Constantin Film GmbH – Netflix

Zeit Verbrechen – TV Series – X-Filme – Paramount+

Viktor bringt’s – TV Series – all episodes – Ed Herzog – Real Film Berlin GmbH – Amazon Prime

Treasure – Feature Film – Julia von Heinz – Seven Elephants GmbH

The Grimm Reality – TV series – W&B Television GmbH – Netflix

Sie sagt.Ersagt. – TV Movie – Matti Geschonneck – Moovie GmbH

Die Heisenbergsche Unschärferelation der Liebe – Feature Film – Lars Kraume – X Filme Creative Pool GmbH

Constellation – TV Series – all episodes – Turbine Studios [uk] – Apple TV+

Bumper in Berlin – TV Series – all episodes – Universal Television [us] – Peacock (us)

A Thin Line – TV Series – all episodes – Peacock [us] – Weydemann Bros Serial Drama GmbH [de]

FBI International – TV Series – CBS (us) – diverse – Wolf Entertainment (us)

15 Jahre – Feature Film – Chris Kraus – Four Minutes Filmproduktion GmbH

Der vermessene Mensch – Feature Film – Lars Kraume – Zero One Film GmbH

Kleo – TV Series – all episodes – Zeitsprung Pictures GmbH – Netflix

The Empress – Die Kaiserin – TV Series – all episodes – Sommerhaus Serien GmbH – Netflix

Inventing Anna – TV Series – Shondaland Productions [us] – Netflix

The Flight Attendant – TV Series – HBO Max – Warner Bros. [us]

Industry – TV Series, Bad Wolf [uk] – BBC [uk], HBO [us]

Der Palast – TV Movie – Uli Edel – Constantin Television GmbH

Die Wannseekonferenz – TV Movie – Matti Geschonneck – Constantin Television GmbH

Gott – von Ferdinand von Schirach – TV Movie – Lars Kraume – MOOVIE GmbH

Schachnovelle – Feature Film – Philipp Stölzl – Walker+Worm Film GmbH & Co. KG [de]

Mein Sohn – Feature Film – Lena Stahl – Akzente Film & Fernsehproduktion GmbH

Isi & Ossi – TV Movie, Oliver Kienle – X Filme Creative Pool GmbH

Die Känguru-Chroniken – Reload3D – Feature Film – Dani Levy– X Filme Creative Pool GmbH

Counterpart Season 2 – TV Series – all episodes – Einundvierzigste Babelsberg, Starz (us)

Traumfabrik – Feature Film – Martin Schreier – Studio Babelsberg, Tobis Film

Das schweigende Klassenzimmer – Feature Film – Lars Kraume – Akzente Film

Lara – Feature Film – Jan-Ole Gerster – Schiwago Film

Der Junge muss an die frische Luft – Feature Film – Caroline Link – Ufa Fiction

Dengler – fremde Wasser TV Movie – Rick Ostermann – Bavaria Fiction

Acht Tage – TV Series – Sky

You are Wanted – TV Series – Matthias Schweighöfer, Amazon Prime

Dark – TV Series – all episodes – Baran Bo Odar – Netflix, Wiedemann & Berg

Dengler – Die schützende Hand – TV Movie – Lars Kraume – Bavaria Fiction

Der König von Berlin – TV Movie – Lars Kraume – Olga Film

Terror – nach Ferdinand von Schirach – TV Movie – Lars Kraume – MOOVIE GmbH

Schuld – nach Ferdinand von Schirach – TV Movie – Hannu Salonen- MOOVIE GmbH

Mitten in Deutschland: NSU – TV Movie – Züli Aladag – Wiedemann & Berg

The Have-Nots – Feature Film – Florian Hoffmeister – Una Film

Feel – Feature Film – Markus O. Rosenmüller – Ziegler Film

Das Dorf der Mörder – TV Movie – Nikolaus “Niki” Stein – Ziegler Film

Weissensee Season 3 – TV Series – all episodes – Friedemann Fromm – Ziegler Film

Man without shadow – TV Movie – Carlo Rola – Network movie

Ruth – Auf das Leben – Feature Film – Uwe Janson – CCC-Filmkunst

Die Polizistin – TV Movie – Franziska Buch -Ziegler Film

Polizeiruf 110 – TV Movie – Friedemann Fromm – Saxonia Media

Mission housemen – TV Movie – Christof Klünker – CCC-Filmkunst

Westen – Feature Film – Christian Schwochow – Zero one Film

Nacht über Berlin – TV Movie – Friedemann Fromm – Ufa Film

Weissensee Season 2 – TV Series – all episodes – Friedemann Fromm – Ziegler Film

Mutter muss weg – TV Movie – Edward Berger – Ziegler Film

Komm schöner Tod – TV Movie – Friedemann Fromm – Ziegler Film

Wunderkinder -Feature Film – Marcus O. Rosenmüller – CCC – Filmkunst

Der Scheriff – TV Movie – Torsten Wacker – Askania Media

Entführt – TV Movie – Nicolai Rohde – Factor Sechs

Method – Feature Film – Ulas Insac – mpool

Weissensee Season 1 – TV Series – all episodes – Friedemann Fromm – Ziegler Film

Jenseits der Mauer – TV Movie – Friedemann Fromm – Ziegler Film

Tatort – TV Movie – Nils Wilbrandt – Ziegler Film

Die Wölfe – TV Movie – Friedemann Fromm – Ziegler Film

Tatort – TV Movie – Christine Hartmann – Ziegler Film

The Pianist – Feature Film – Roma Polanski – Studio Babelsberg

Ma femme s´apelle Maurice – Feature Film – Jean Marie Poiree – Studio Babelsberg

Stills – photography for movies • Gallery Geistesblüten Berlin • Solo show

Book and Essays about still photography available @ www.geistesblüten.com

Inszeniert! Deutsche Geschichte und Fotografien im Spielfilm • Haus der Geschichte, Leipzig
Film stills • Group show

Film stills • Anima Mundi • Palazzo Ca´Zanardi, Venice
Faces unshaped • Group show

Film stills 2009 – 2015 • Fürst & Iven, Berlin • Solo show

Inszeniert! • Deutsche Geschichte und Fotografien im Spielfilm • Haus der Geschichte, Bonn
Film stills • Group show

Film stills • 2001-2009 • Fürst & Iven, Berlin • Solo show

To be or not to be • Munich modern, Munich
Street photography, New York • Group show

Bild people • Lynch by inch, David Lynch and the art of interpretation • Gallery L40, • Group show

Principles of composition • Munich modern, Munich
Street photography • Group show

Unheimlich vertraut • C/O-Berlin
New York Photography 9/11 • Group show

Fleurs du mal • Munich modern, Munich
 • Group show

Manhattan works on paper part two • Goethe institute Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, New York, Los Angeles


Street photography • Solo show • Goethe institute New York

Jewish life in New York • Israeli Consulat and Galerie Wilhelm-Kempf, Berlin, Tel Aviv • Solo show

Manhattan works on paper part one • Contemporary gallery for american photography,

Street photography • Group show Mannheim

Behind the curtain • Actors behind the scenes
Kuenstlerhaus Lenbachhaus, Munich • Solo show

Around the corner • White gallery, San Francisco
Street photography • Solo show

Twelve seconds • Depot gallery, Frankfurt a.m.
 • Solo show

Etikette • Boeckler Galerie, Berlin
Street photography • Group show