Jörg Nicht

Jörg is one of the most popular Instagram photographers in Germany having signed up not long after the app launched back in 2010. He's primarily known for being a street photographer shooting impressions of Berlin – a city in motion – although he's often found taking pictures of landscapes and nature too. Over 220,000 followers can't be wrong! 

“It is very difficult to quickly capture the essence of a place”

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got involved with photography, what it is about mobile photography that interests you and whether you see a differentiation between "traditional" and mobile photography.

I have been photographing since the age of 12. When I turned 16 I was given a simple SLR, and this was the start of me taking more and more pictures. It was important that at the time I was also developing the films myself. Since that time I have always been photographing. I discovered mobile photography with my first iPhone. Shortly before that a friend had showed me Hipstamatic. And trying Hipstamatic with my iPhone made me realise its potential. Two of those very first photographs are still my favourites. With this camera I was much more flexible and spontaneous than with all cameras before that. The decisive difference between “traditional” and mobile photography though in my opinion is the possibility to instantly show the pictures to others.

You obviously have a keen eye for beautiful compositions and your lighting is always very subtle, giving your images quite a natural feel. Do you actually use apps much and if so which do you favour and why?

I edit most of the pictures with Snapseed. I edit some with VSCO Cam on top of that. Snapseed is simple to use but at the same time provides some important functions. From my point of view VSCO Cam’s filters are the best. Most of the time I use the iPhone’s native camera, in particular the HDR mode. The HDR versions of the pictures are very conducive to further editing.

You describe your images of Berlin as “impressions of a city in motion”. It’s obviously an ideal place to get a very varied view of city life, but are there any other cities around the world that you would love to photograph and why?

In my opinion street and city photographers truly come into their own when they are travelling. It is very difficult to quickly capture the essence of a place. Every city is of course completely different. City sociologists also speak of distinct internal logical systems of cities: how their inhabitants obey traffic rules, where they are going and how the city perceives its own identity. That is why I admire travel photographers who need to take very good pictures in a short space of time. Many well known street photographers have taken their best pictures in their familiar surroundings. It is a great compliment for me if someone says that they have seen the city from a different side through my pictures though it still seemed familiar. If I wanted to photograph New York then one of the challenges would be that this city has already been so often and intensively photographed. I am not sure if I could get anything new out of it. In terms of its iconography New York is probably the epitome of the modern Western big city.

“I am open towards whatever may happen”

In addition to Instagram, you also showcase your imagery on Flickr . You seem to post exactly the same images on both sites, how does the user experience differ for you and would you say you have a preference for one over the other?

Flickr functions following other mechanisms than Instagram. Whilst Instagram is more transient Flickr is better for finding and sorting photos etc. But just like Instagram, Flickr can only exist through participation. I must say though that I am not that involved with Flickr so that I am not getting that much feedback from there.

All the images you post are shot with your iPhone5 and that’s obviously your kit of choice but do you see a time when you’ll go back to using other equipment?

I also have a full format SRL. For specific tasks (portraits) I am also using this camera. The technical quality of the pictures is better by a long shot. However, it is too large and heavy to always be carrying it around.

Mobile photography is surely the next generation of photography. It’s certainly being used more and more commercially. Is that something you’ve had any experience of yourself or something that you think you might be interested in, as it seems a natural progression for someone who sets such high quality benchmarks?

The technical development will go on. The camera modules of smart phones are getting better and better and SLRs with internet connectivity etc. are becoming the norm. Only when this process is complete will mobile photography be able to be commercially successful. So far mobile photographers (particularly Instagramers) can only be successful in marketing in my opinion. At the moment I am very keenly observing this development, which means that I am open towards whatever may happen.