works with analogue large-format photography, creating multilayered visual spaces of exceptional precision and depth of detail. At the centre of his work are people situated within expansive landscapes, urban environments, and collective social settings. His images often emerge in the context of traditional large-scale events such as the Festa del Redentore in Venice or the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, as well as within temporary living environments such as the Tibetan Base Camp on Mount Everest. In recent years, film productions have increasingly become a focus of his practice. Stepan observes cinematic spaces and situations from a detached perspective — both during filming and in the moments in between.

The photographs do not reveal themselves immediately. Only through sustained observation do the figures gradually emerge as central elements of the composition. Oscillating between panorama and detail, the works develop a tension between distance, proximity, and density.

Each work is preceded by an intensive engagement with place, perspective, and temporal structure. The images are based on multiple analogue large-format exposures and arise through the combination of technical precision and documentary observation. Stepan’s aim is to unite complex motifs within a single image through a highly elaborate technical process, allowing them to be experienced as an integrated whole. Montage is not employed to construct fictional spaces, but rather to approximate the way perception and memory allow a moment to be experienced in its entirety.

After studying business administration, Christoph Stepan devoted himself exclusively to photography in 2004. He assisted, among others, Florian Holzherr and Robert Polidori, and accompanied international projects throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America. He has also worked for leading architectural practices.

He lives and works in Munich.

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Represented by

Galerie Alex Schlesinger, Zurich, www.alexschlesinger.ch

HOTO Gallery, Berlin, www.hotoart.de