Jan von Holleben

Jan von Holleben is a German photographer born in 1977.

He graduated from the Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, England, and has worked as a picture editor and photography director for a magazine. An accidental shooting experience made him realize that shooting children from above can not only create interesting "stories", but also that children are very cooperative. Inspired by this, he created many childlike photography works.

In his works, he often brings children to the studio, uses various shooting props on a solid background cloth, and invites children to cooperate and pose appropriately. Sometimes the childrens "free play" will also bring him creative surprises. His photography works are very creative, such as letting children lie on the ground with a bunch of balls, playing with small yellow umbrellas in their hands, or using daily objects to create interesting scenes, such as fantasy towns, fire-breathing dragons, etc., as if every photo can make up a little story in his mind.

His works are full of innocence, youth and brilliant colors, and are deeply loved by the audience. He has won honorary awards and has been published in many magazines or books. He has also held photography exhibitions in London, New York, Berlin and Paris. He is also good at using interesting hand-collage methods to process portrait photography. For example, he was invited by the German media ZEIT to create a dream-themed art work "Dreams of Flying".

In addition to childrens photography works, Jan von Holleben has also photographed adolescent boys and girls, expressing the ignorance and vitality of youth with unique imagination. For example, he has photographed the images of teenagers in the book "The First Body Book for Boys and Girls - The Best Answer to Growing Up", which was written by the famous parent-child columnist Antje Holmes and won the 2013 German Youth Book Award.

"I used to rule worlds. Not just one, but many. I ruled them with mirrors and lenses. I ruled them with light and time. Sometimes I ruled them with visual tricks. Through my camera, entire universes took shape, and each world in them seemed to run according to some unfamiliar logic, like a kind of magical clockwork."

Born in 1977 and raised in rural southern Germany, Jan von Holleben spent most of his youth living in an alternative commune, and he believes that the development of his photographic work is closely linked to the influence of his parents, a film photographer and a child therapist. At the age of 13, he followed his fathers photography career, picked up a camera, tried various "magic tricks", developed his photographic imagination and skills with friends and family, and later honed his skills in a commercial environment. After studying teaching disabled children at the Freiburg School of Education, he moved to the UK, where he obtained a degree in Theory and History of Photography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design and began to get involved in the London photography scene as a picture editor, art director and photography director. He soon founded two photography collectives, the Young Photographers Union and photodebut, and more recently the Photographers Office. His photographs focus on "Play People" - people who learn through play. His photographs blend educational theory with his own personal experiences and everyday adventures.