Interview
Interview with Gesine Born: Morning Coffee with Science Photographer Gesine Born
by Almir Strinić
Gesine Born has been a close collaborator of Lucid.Studio for almost 10 years now. Since our last interview in 2015, her focus has shifted completely to science and she has added video -production to her portfolio. Learn about her recent career path, her passion for science and plans for the future.
Almir: Dear Gesine, you’ve been working as a photographer for 11 years now. What has inspired you to choose this profession—was it always a hobby you wanted to pursue?
Gesine: No, after high school I decided to enrol in chemistry, but with time I realised that practice in a lab was not my thing after all. I really enjoyed the theory, but the laboratory did not bring me any real joy. So I went to an Art School that was very practical and I had very nice professor, Ute Mahler, she’s founder of Ost Kreuz—a huge, really nice photography agency, really artsy—and she taught me how to be a photographer.
The decision to change profession requires sometimes courage and strong will .What was the “aha moment” when you realised that chemistry was not the right choice for you?
As a matter of fact, it turned out that I had very different expectations from chemistry. The experience in the lab was really horrible, it wasn’t something where I could see me being happy.
So I did two internship in agencies that did web—it was 1999. I did all by my own, I learnt how to deal with photoshop, flash and all that stuff. I then enrolled in Art School.
Can you tell us more about your thesis referring to utopian society and city called Die vernünftigste Stadt der Welt (smartest/most practical city in the world). Your main topic was to debunk the myth about utopian dream.
The subject of my thesis was inspired by a book I found accidentally at flea-market, it was called “7 World Wonders from Tomorrow” and it was about how our future might look like—the book was from 1970—and it was a positive narrative about how technology might make our future better and society happier.
There was one part called “Smartest City in the World”, depicting a futuristic city consisting of skyscrapers and happy people living within: In some places people truly are happy of such settings, like in Singapore. There’s a law for example, that they have to mix the ethnic groups, the rich and the poor together. But here in Germany that is not the case. Who can afford a flat in some new skyscraper?
However, the vision inspired me so much that I wanted to focus on it. I visited cities throughout Germany which were built in brutalism style but I really wanted to make a picture in a nice way, to show the dream, how it was meant to be. Some parts of the cities I took pictures of don’t exist anymore, like in Hannover. I mostly looked for the utopian which went wrong.
You are currently professionally engaged with DESY (Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron), one of the biggest scientific institutions of Germany and the world. It’s obviously not traditional photography—what is your cooperation about?
It was real coincidence that I happened to work for DESY, I did fencing course in Hamburg and my teacher was already working in DESY and I told him that I am photographer. Meanwhile, he was talking with the PR Manager and told me that I can send them my portfolio. That time I had a concept for business people, to make portraits of people working for some specific company. I sent this concept to him and got an answer half a year later: they told me we have like one thousand people and I was like wow! Best job ever. So then I started developing other concepts aiming to show the faces of the scientists in their working environment.
You have an indisputable passion for science—did that also push you to work for them?
This is the area where I wanted to be and where I wanted to grow. I worked a lot for science companies and I also did a professional training in Science Communication. I really want to follow in this direction, not only by taking picture of events, but also making films etc.
What kind of clients are you working with and what’s your favourite type of photography?
Movie is the direction where I would like to head now. I did a movie about a scientist from DESY, David Berger, he’s an astrophysicist: I attended his lectures, took notes about what he was saying and we had a long conversation together. I prefer to communicate with people face to face so I can approximate the viewer to the actual work and life of the scientist. I really want to do it in an empathic and emotional way.
How much effort does it take to understand the work that these scientists are actually doing?
I try to.. I always say to them: explain it to me. And when I understand even a hint of it, I’m really happy about it. Sometimes I ask stupid questions, so they realise they have to really break it down. But sometimes it is all about those small things, like in a portrait you really need connection with someone, to gain his or her trust. The good thing is that you have scientists like David Berger, who is very handsome and can speak half an hour without mistakes. But I would also like to do video portraits about some really nerdy scientist completely absorbed in his/her world, and show it to others.
So you didn’t continue to study chemistry, but in the end of the day you still came into the world of science through photography.
Yeah, I’ve always had science in my heart! When I was taking my first test in university, I was so excited and there was a professor of art which told me “you have to put more feelings”, and I was like “ no, I’m more of a scientist!”. Now I am more happy with being more emotional—to show the personality of a scientist, so people can think that is actually a nice woman/guy.
You’re transitioning to movies. When did you start and what is the biggest challenge?
The idea of making films came in a moment when I was taking photographs of leading scientist at DESY and speaking with them for hours. Later I went over all the conversations I had with them and found it amazing!
Are you part of a photography community?
Not really, I feel more like a science communicator than an artist. If I had more time, I would like to realise all the projects I have in my mind, but I’m so busy with communicating science that I don’t miss this work.
Tell us something you learned in science communication—or how you understand it or see your position.
I once had to do 8 different portraits in one day over a huge area at DESY and each time I had to move the set and lights—I crashed into this different type of work and rhythm (then commercial photography) where I had to be really concentrated to be with the person during this half hour.
I felt like I am a clown smashing into some scientist’s life for half an hour and bringing absolute chaos.
How do you break ice with them?
It helps that I am listening carefully to them; I am really interested into their work and life. You cannot fake being interested. The thing is that when you are really interested it means I am here for this person with all my senses. And I really like to show a little bit of their work.
Some of them are so funny. There was a woman scientist which had dinosaurs all over the place and everybody who visits her gives her another dinosaur. I took a photo of this dinosaur and it was funny and yeah, humour and interest helps and they are the secrets to breaking the ice and open people’s hearts.
You’ve been professionally engaged with Lucid.Studio for years: What was the experience working with us so far?
I trust Lucid, what they do and I know I can go to my customers and say: that is exactly what you need, the people are so talented; I really have a great feeling about the cooperation with Lucid and I think they have the same amount of trust in me. They gave me the job for Kaspar Hauser Foundation for which I made portraits, it was a wonderful job.
What is the difference when crushing spaces of people in Kaspar Hauser Stftung then when you crush the space of scientists?
Yeah. You really have to have same skills already, soft skills in communication with others, how to relate to them.. you have to be there, you have to be interested. No matter if a person with disability or a scientist, they have their own space, own room and you have to come to this room. As a humanist I am not a judgemental person and until now I had maybe only one person I took photos of that I did not like. Sometimes when I am working with people I feel like I’m discovering different planets. It’s like my Brazilian friend — she’s that crazy wild one and I’m the cold German fish.
This year Lucid celebrates 10 years anniversary, what do you wish Lucid and the team for the next 10 years?
I wish you to develop further, please stay a team as open to diversity and different kind of people as you’ve always been. Lucid gives people the opportunity to rise, which matches the city’s spirit and attitude.
Thank you for your time and we wish you all the best for your future endeavours. If our readers want to contact you, or learn more about your work, where should they go?
I have a website with my portfolio, but I will also start my new Instagram project, because I’m not only doing photography, but I am also engaged in movement against homeopathy and I want to make a channel for that, to bring actual science to people.
You can read our 2015 interview with Gesine here:
Visit Gesine’s official website here:
