Interview with Portrait Photographer Andrea Hubner

Real beauty is often showcased the best with the help of simple frame composition in photography and this is exactly what Andrea Hubner showcases. A master of portraiture, Hubner usually clicks feminine pictures with striking subjects.

Her varying abilities, creative approach, and extensive vision has helped her in clicking some of the deepest and most resonant feminine images of all times. So much so that her portraits almost look like works of art. She maintains her focus on female energies, forms as well as emotions which provide a very distinctive appeal to all her pictures.

About Her

Andrea Hubner is a small town girl hailing from Frankfurt, Germany. She was born in 1984 and took a deep interest in sports photography, mainly cycling. However, she went on to study French and British Studies at the University. Currently, she is living in Mannheim, Germany and most of her projects are carried out here itself.

Unlike her contemporaries, she portrays nature and feminine forms together instead of going for urban fashion and extremely sexualized images of women. She shoots nudes as well but they also have a very beautiful artistic touch. In her words ‘this (natural) backdrop fits better to my style… because it helps me to transport the emotions of a picture’. As an art enthusiast or an art critique, you find an array of emotions in her compositions that are devoid of artificial or overly emphasized sexuality even in the case of nudes. The pictures are more relaxed and natural which showcases deeper and more heartfelt emotions.

Her calmer style matches fairly well with the Quadratiges or Square formats which are mostly used in her pictures. She also uses digital cameras and old film cameras to suit the mood of the picture. A plethora of her composition is shot with women sans makeup.

1. In your own words, what is portrait photography? And the things you enjoy most about it?

To me, portrait photography is a way of capturing faces and expressions and bringing everyone’s individuality to light. It’s also about learning something about the person in front of the camera, spending some hours with an individual I often meet for the first time. I enjoy meeting new people and discovering another aspect of their personality, sometimes they are surprised as a photographer captures them in a different way.

2. You have mastered the art of photographing people, what has helped you most instinct or training and why?

That’s a difficult question. I think that you need both of them to become a good photographer. Instinct definitely helps me in many ways during a shoot, but you also need the training to take good pictures. A good mixture of both is essential in my opinion.

3. Do You believe it is the model that makes the photographer or the photographer that makes the model?

A good picture is the result of good teamwork. Of course, it’s easier as a photographer if you have a good model in front of your camera. But this does not necessarily depend on the model’s experience, quite the contrary. I often have people with no modeling experience in front of my camera and some of them impressed me a lot more than some professional models.

4. Camera and Equipment you use for portrait photography?

I have a Canon 5D and use my 50mm/1.4 lens most of the time. I also have a medium format film camera, but at the moment I use the Canon most of the time.

5. As a Photographer what are the achievements that you would love to accomplish?

I’m trying to improve my skills and still have lots of projects to realize. Other than that, I don’t have a special achievement that I’d like to accomplish.

6. Any favorite celebrity or person you ever wished to photograph?

There are many inspiring faces out there, I’d love to photograph Jessica Chastain for example (I like redheads, obviously :))

7. Do you think post-photography editing has added to the skill of the photographer or taken away from it?

I’m a big fan of post-processing and wouldn’t want to miss it. Even though I try to keep my photos as natural as possible, I still do some post-processing. In some way, I envy photographers who don’t use post-processing at all, but I guess that this is very rare nowadays.

8. What projects are you currently working on and your favorite series from the past, tell us little about it?

I have some new projects to come, some of them also involve a make-up artist and might turn out to be different from my usual works. So stay tuned for the results :). I think that one of my favorite series lately is this series: http://www.quadratiges.de/?page_id=608 . I thought that I could never be able to take photos of a couple that I really like but in the end, I was very satisfied with the results.

9. Lastly, if you had $1,000 how would you spend on improving your portrait photography?

I guess I would buy some more (studio) backgrounds for the future, it’s always very helpful for portraits to have different backgrounds and you can use them in many different ways.

We would like to warmly thank Andrea for this interview and the questions we asked her. She was so kind to answer our questions. Thanks, Andrea for giving us tidbits of information on your inspirational work :).

Feel free to check out her inspirational photography work and catch her on social networks.

Her Website: http://www.quadratiges.de

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Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/quadratiges.photography