Tamara von Rechenberg - Photography

Photography

This was my first one. I found it in a house clearance as a technology-mad fourteen year old. It was love at first “click”, and a passion was born.
When I take photos I'm always in search of genuine and authentic encounters and ultimately I find these in direct contact with people.

Travel

I’ve been travelling around the world with my camera now for 27 years. My travels focus on countries in Asia, South America, the Middle and Far East as well as cities in the USA and Europe. With my camera I'm always looking for authentic encounters and I find these when I have contact with people, which means that these trips are always to meet people.
Socially critical topics interested me from an early age. Many of the issues I have come across since then are reflected in the choice of my motifs and revolve around poverty and exclusion.
My pictures are intended as messages to move people and to encourage them to change their way of thinking and acting. It is impossible to say whether photography will ultimately help to create a fairer world, but photographs can give a face to injustice.

Tibet - 10 years of the Dalai Lama

As a young girl I already read a lot about the history of Tibet, the beauty of the country, the people as well as Tibetan culture and Buddhist festivals and their shrines. Soon I was particularly interested in reading about Tibetan Buddhism, the prevailing religion in Tibet, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama. I practically devoured his publications. I kept on picking up the book “My Journey Through Heaven and Hell” by Alexandra David Néel, who was born in 1868 in a suburb of Paris (France) and set out for Asia at the age of 23. The story described her adventurous life. In 1924 the travel writer arrived in Tibet, Lhasa, disguised as a monk because at the time the city was closed to foreigners. Her book played a seminal part in my life. As soon as possible I wanted to discover Tibet and the rest of the world. Yet Tibet is also associated with many tragic stories and the more I learnt about them, the more difficult it was for me to travel to Tibet. After numerous other trips I did finally come to Tibet and tried to understand the present-day country. From these impressions I made a photo art book for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who now lives in exile in India. It is entitled “PrayerWheel” and I was able to present it to him personally with the words “something from home”.