Well, here's the long and the short of it - if you want only the short version click here to jump to the bottom of the page. Otherwise read on!
I had an early love for most things artistic, probably instilled by a musical education that started at about two years of age.
After graduating however, I decided to take a little detour and sniffle around the sciences a bit. To this end I decided to study geology and palaeontology (yes - rocks!). Wasn't for me, after all, although I do retain to this day a certain affinity to mining and petroleum exploration, as you may have noticed in some of my images.
Travel - that has always been a word that sent my head spinning and I did travel an awful lot, taking pictures, meeting people, having a good time.
At some point I simply decided to combine my various ambitions/hobbies/vocations and - voila! - another photographer was born. I started out in reportage, exploring the far corners of the planet and reporting on all sort of obscure things (Fijian Firewalkers, anyone?), which got published in a lot of international magazines. A few hundred, to be imprecise.
From reportage to pure photojournalism is only a small step and after having moved to Paris, the early 90s saw me covering pretty much any war and disaster that was to be covered in Africa, my main stomping ground at the time.
In between Renzo Castiglioni of MAX magazine in Milan asked me if I wanted to shoot fashion for them. Needless to say, I dismissed the idea out of hand - fashion, bah, how decadent! Equally needless to say, I was intrigued and, of course, ended up shooting a series of great fashion reportages for MAX. My all-time favourite of this work must be the shoot with the circus troupe of Archaos in Paris.
Although I enjoyed this work very much, I did stick to my guns and carried on to work for organizations such as UNHCR and the ICRC in various crises around the world. I have always believed, that as a photographer one should work in various fields and make the most of the experience. Cross-pollination, if you want. I was never interested in becoming the guy who does the most beautiful coffee mugs in the studio. You get the drift.
But the only constant in life is change, so I travelled to Antarctica twice to do a book and subsequently made an interactive CD, which brought me to live and work in Milan for a year. So what does a photographer do, who's shot pretty much anything? Move to London and do corporate and advertising of course! I came here in '98 and am still thoroughly enjoying it. Being based here gives me the opportunity for frequent travel (hey, we haven't got an airplane flying overhead every 40 seconds here for nothing!) and London probably has the best travel connections anywhere in the world.
I always have and always will enjoy meeting and interacting with people, so the portrait work I do a lot of these days is something I seriously enjoy. I'm also not exactly at ease in front of the camera, so making people feel relaxed while a lens is pointed at them is something I think I'm pretty good at.
So, if you've made it all the way to here - thanks for reading this and have a quick look at the "hard facts" below.
chris_sattlberger@compuserve.com
Photography is an enduring love. I became interested in taking pictures through my extensive travels and the people I was fortunate enough to meet. From my background in geology I kept the love for our planet - and the beings that inhabit it.
Able to make 'normal' people feel at ease in front of the camera. Experienced in photography in primary industries and familiar with difficult/hazardous environments as well as with aerial photography, including air-to-air.
Pilot's license (PPL)
ASMP, the American Society of Media Photographers.
The Association of Photographers, London