Nikolas Koenig

In 2007, on an assignment by the New York Times Magazine to cover many of Shigeru Ban’s buildings, I was fortunate to travel extensively through Japan for almost two weeks. This allowed me to see other parts of the country besides Tokyo, as we visited the Paper Art Museum in Shizuoka, a private home called Maison E in Iwaki and the precious daycare center and Atsushi Imai Memorial Gymnasium in Odate, Akita.

I met Shigeru Ban briefly on two occasions (and took one portrait) as Michael Kimmelman, the writer of the article for the New York Times, was doing parts of his research and interviews with Mr. Ban. Here is the link to the original article.

Despite all work & glory, the memory that stuck with me the most, was our experience taking part in a traditional Japanese bathing ritual. Traveling with my trusted long time assistant Dan Levin as well as good friend and production designer Maki Takenouchi, who helped with the production and translations, we spent one night in Akita at a hotel that offered a hot spring. After a brief tutorial from Maki about what to expect and proper conduct, we got changed and entered the men only facility. As they say, what happens in Akita stays in Akita, but two hours later we certainly were the cleanest we had ever been, and the experience became another aspect of the Japanese culture that I absolutely love.

There is a hilarious picture of us about to enter the spa, and I will add it to this post once I have managed to locate it.
In the meantime: Congratulations, Shigeru Ban!

As I need to bridge an enormous gap between my last post and NOW, may as well start with what is most current: This morning, designboom (according to their own description “the first and largest independent publication dedicated to architecture and design”) ran a very image rich article on the only private residence ever built by Daniel Libeskind.

Pretty much exactly two years ago, some fortunate circumstances led me to first meet one the owners in New York, then Daniel and his wife at the site and subsequently I was given the opportunity to photograph the house over the course of two days. Goal was to create a set of photographs for the owner’s records as well as for Studio Libeskind, and since then several of the images have appeared in some print magazines. Today’s article however showcases more images overall, including some that had not been published previously.

You can see the article here:

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/daniel-libeskind-18-36-54-house/

I just finished a shoot for Architectural Digest in Aspen. I was working with Michael Reynolds, whom I have known “forever”, dating back to my days as a photo assistant. I have always known, that apart from being a great stylist/designer/editor, he can be hilariously funny, but this time around I actually learned that he has done some incredible things in his personal life.

Coincidentally one of my all-time favorite photographers, Francois Halard, was shooting in Aspen at the same time, and we were able to enjoy a dinner together. In particularly odd seemed the fact that he had arrived in Aspen straight from his first trip to Dubai, where I will be going this Friday, also for the first time.

On the day of our return to New York this past Sunday, we were surprised at the airport with the news that they were shutting down and cancelling all flights due to strong winds. Waiting that one out wasn’t an option for any of us, so we kept our rental car and went for a (beautiful) 4hr drive to the Denver airport instead. When it was all said and done, landing past midnight in Newark, getting a car to drive me to my car parked at Laguardia, I was finally in my own bed Monday morning at 3am. While I logged this as just one more “business as usual” experience, it did remind me of those funny charts about “What people think I do” or “How photographers actually spend their time“, as I can tell from channeling most people’s thought bubbles, that their firm belief is, those rings under my eyes must clearly be a result from too many “Après-ski cocktails” and heavy dancing in Aspen.

Drive from Aspen to Denver airport

Over a coffee at the Mercer Hotel about three weeks ago, Marcelo Junemann, founder & editor in chief of BIG magazine, asked me if I was interested in “covering” one or two of the shows during fashion week in New York. I really had to give it a few minutes of thought. At that point I had not even been to a show before, and I certainly had little interest in trying to do runway photography and competing with my colleagues for coveted square inches of prime location in the photographer’s box. He assured me though that he was only looking for my own personal take on a fashion show, that I could do whatever I wanted and he handpicked the shows that were of obvious interest to me, due to location and let’s call it “production value”.  Subsequently on my list were: Moncler at the Wollman Rink in Central Park and Thom Browne at the New York Public Library, both produced by Etienne Russo, and Michael Kors produced by Alexandre de Betak. Yes, I did miss Marc Jacobs by Rachel Feinstein…

I was taken by complete and welcomed surprise, that this assignment has become one the most exciting projects in past years. Seeing the vision, choreography, lighting, music and fashion come together for those few minutes reminded me of  some of the inspiring performances I had seen of the Frankfurt Ballett by William Forsythe over twenty years ago when I was still living there. Standing on a rock in Central Park during rehearsals for the Moncler show, Gershwin playing and snow beginning to fall, it was like being part of the opening scenes of Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”: It was majestic, epic, awe-inspiring. For a few seconds, I “knew”, there was no place on earth that could possibly be more exciting than the spot I was capturing that very moment from with my camera.

Marcelo was kind enough to let me post a few of the images on my site as a sneak-peak, until the story has been published in BIG.

Thank you Marcelo!

Photographer's Box at Michael Kors