rayhen / Raimund Verspohl Photography

Raimund Verspohl – Pure Portraits

Verspohl doesn’t search for the flattering angle.
He captures what remains when the roles fall away:
a gaze that doesn’t ask for attention. A hand with no intention.
Time doesn’t stop in these pictures – it just pauses. Travelers at the moment, stranded between what they are supposed to show and what they are.

Raimund Verspohl’s portrait photography reveals his very personal view of the human condition. His pictures radiate a natural matter-of-factness – unagitated, yet with a fine sense of staging.

No staging. No gloss.
Just that in-between moment – between what we show and who we are.
Sometimes it’s closeness. Sometimes distance. Often both.

Verspohl’s camera is not polite. It does not ask for the beautiful side, the advantageous angle. It is like an onlooker in a society that loses itself in conventions, and captures what remains when the curtain falls: a smile that sells nothing, a look that does not want to convince – but to tell.

Closeness, distance. Being lost. Weakness. Strength. All this simultaneously and coherently. Timeless. Authentic.

Beginnings

Raimund gained his first professional experience during his time at the Theater im Pumpenhaus in Münster, 1987 to 1988, and as a computer graphic designer and lecturer for computer animation in Munich, 1988 to 1989. After a permanent position in an advertising agency, he began working as a freelance graphic designer for various agencies and clients in 1992.

From 1996 to 1997, Raimund Verspohl lived and worked in Jakarta, Indonesia. After his return to the European continent, he initially continued to work full-time as a freelance communication designer, while at the same time he began to devote himself in particular to portrait photography in his first photographic projects.

The path to portrait photography

His life path led him from graphic design to portrait photography, from the observation of external forms to the exploration of inner worlds. His photographic journey, which initially avoided people, turned into a search for authenticity, for the true, inner self behind the outwardly visible self, through his approach to people and portrait photography.

Philosophy and working methods in portrait photography

Raimund Verspohl’s declared reluctance to stand in front of the camera instead of behind it is based on his deep understanding of those who are in front of his camera. His encounters are without expectations. ‘Prejudices are okay,’ he says, ‘as long as you are prepared to constantly question them. His gift for listening

Raimund Verspohl was born near Münster in 1962 and grew up in a rural environment. After graduating from high school, he studied communication and graphic design at Münster University of Applied Sciences from 1981 to 1987.

and asking the right questions enables him to show authentic and unpredictable moments in his portrait photography.

Reflection and human existence

Raimund’s continuous self-reflection and examination of the meaning of “being seen” are reflected in his portrait photography. His photographic work involves an ongoing analysis of the self, an examination of the question of what it means to really be seen. A look behind the masks, into the moments when we can let them fall.