Welcome in Hamburg!
I am Armin Morbach.
I am a photographer, an artist, a hairdresser and an editor-in-chief.
Welcome to my world! This is Tush magazine and all the big secrets are happening here.
Tush magazine started because I was fed up with stupid editors telling me what to do.
That someone who never had a brush in their hands and never put a lipstick
on told me what's trendy and what's not trendy. I said f*** it. I'll do my own. I called all
my friends, all photographers. I called all the big models.
Claudia Schiffer was on the cover.
That's how it started. It's different because we concentrate on accessories,
on beauty, on art photography.
She is going to wear this top, she will be nude here but she will wear a string
and I'll tape her to the floor on a glass plate.
I always wanted to build a chair out of a woman's body
but I can't do that myself so it may be better to do it in the picture.
I want to get the position as low so that it looks like she is the chair but has no head.
I was a hairdresser and one day a photographer didn't show up.
Everything was dead so I took the camera and it just started.
Twenty years next to the camera, it was just a little step to be behind the camera.
I want to create my own way of seeing it because when you do hair for hours
and the photographer clicks at the wrong moment, it pisses me off.
I like to play with contrast where you don't know whether it is a man or
a woman, where does this leg come from, why they used a garbage bag.
It's hard to describe my own look because it's not pretty,
it's not glamorous, but it has a certain style.
Everything you see in my pictures is a part of me. Maybe it's hidden, maybe it's obvious,
and maybe if I do glamorous hair it is very obvious I love that. It's something fetish
and something I think looks cool, but it always has something to do with my personality.
The chair is there. I like the light; I know I have to do a little bit of retouch to take
this chair away. If it's there, it's there. There's no big secret to it.
I did about 18 shots. That's enough. That's a lot for me.
If I take a lot of pictures I take 20 but I think if you don't have it by the first 5,
you will never get it. I have worked with photographers
that do 400 and trust me; they always go with the first shots.
I love to shoot in computer because I want to see exactly how it looks
and if my vision is shown on the computer.
I want those things that are glued on to look three-dimensional.
I gave the idea to the makeup department and it came out like this today.
You don't know if it is someone real or something fake and I like that.
This is when art starts. Art starts when some people like it and some people don't.
Then it becomes interesting. If you look through a magazine
and you stop at this picture, it works. This catches you. If not mentally,
then because you think it is sick.
I started taking pictures not more than five years ago.
Two years ago, one of the big collectors in Germany called and said:
"I want to buy your art". This opened a door for me.
I never thought that I would be an artist. This day changed my life.
I could do whatever I wanted and it's good.
I use Kino Flo and flashing for a short time so I get this effect on the picture
I was not happy when she walked on set but now I'm happy
because she looks like a voodoo doll.
I use the 35mm because this particular picture needs something weirder
even though it's weird already.
I love to work with the 50mm and 35mm.
My favorite one is this one, the 120mm. Because everyone looks pretty I think.
The 80mm I'm not a big fan of because everything gets really boring
but I like the 50mm because legs get longer and faces get strange.
My new 35mm I like because it is something of a 60's lens
because it was used a lot in this time.
I'm very friendly but people know exactly when to stop.
I can make jokes, I can be funny but when it comes to the picture, it's my decision.
The little cameras drive me nuts because you go click-click-click and
that's not my way of working. I'm very concentrated when I work.
I look for the frame, I have the picture in my mind and I just click.
The inspiration was making a parties' book from the 70s.
Everyone who works for galleries say that we have to work in a bigger format
otherwise it gets grainy. But that's not my style.
Even if it's 2,50 high, I want to see every detail.
I think everyone who sees this picture will laugh and that's exactly what
I like about the picture. It's croissants, it's cookies, it's a cup of tea on a table cloth.
In ten years I maybe want to open an organic bakery, maybe something else.
Maybe I'm gonna be a painter, I can't really paint but
I won't be a photographer for the rest of my life.
Thank you very much everybody!
This was my day. You saw enough of my secrets
and I'll say bye-bye, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye!