by Yvette Depaepe
Published the 29th of January 2024

Ulrike Landau's  photography is soulful, dreamlike and full of poetry. She describes it as painting and always loved experimenting with all kinds of techniques to increase the mood in her work. She is fascinated by dreams and that is closely related to her job as psychoanalyst.
Discover more about this charming lady and listen to her amazing story.

'Morning has broken'

My name is Ulrike Landau. I am German, living in Brittany with my husband and our two dogs. If I Want to tell something about myself, I first should think about what was really important to me. I am now an ageing lady and can look back on a very eventful life which has made me to who I am today. Above all, I want to express why photography became a passion in my life.

'Le Voisin' (the neighbour)

People say that I am very stubborn person and I hope this is true.  My husband fully confirms it. This stubbornness led me from a small West German town to Berlin, made me a very active member of the women's movement in the 70s and 80s, a time that shaped me enormously. It also allowed me to take unconventional paths and ultimately led me to find my first passion: psychology, or rather psychoanalysis. I studied and trained as a psychoanalyst.  I ran my own practice in Berlin for over 30 years. Nothing was more exciting for me than the biographies and inner experiences of my patients, mainly women. I was particularly fascinated by dreams. I wanted to get to the bottom of things, the underlying, the hidden was always much more interesting to me than the obvious, the visible. I wanted to understand things together with my patients.

'In the Reeds'

To be honest, I don't know exactly how I got into photography.
One day in the early 80s, I was standing in front of a photo shop where second hand cameras were for sale.
I bought an old camera that accompanied me for a long time. I learned a lot by developing my black and white photos in my small photo lab at home. However, since my job took a lot of my time over the next 20 years, I had little time for photography.

'When Night Falls in the Alhambra'

When digital cameras appeared, I gradually discovered a new world that fascinated me: I could “paint” with a camera and with image editing! So, I needed a good camera for long exposures and RAW shooting and some good image editing programs. Today I work with a Sony Alpha 7 full-frame and an Olympus OMD EM 5. Capture One, Affinity Photo and Nik Collection are the software programs I work with.

'Peace' – my very first image published on 1X

I learned auto-didactically in my little photo lab. And I always was the 'doing type' to learn, avoiding all the instruction manuals my husband could imagine. Once I understood how a camera works and how to produce a reasonably good picture, I started initially to experiment, avoiding intentionally photo books not to be influenced by other people’s images. I wanted to find my own individual style. I was sitting in front of my screen, amazed by how my photographs had developed.
To me, it was really like painting and very exciting.  It turned all around this process, because I just let things flow and followed my impulses. I couldn’t have produced the exact same picture, every photo was and still is unique.
Until today I love experimenting and I also really like abstract art, hints rather than clear subjects, the mysterious, the hidden, and especially the colours. My subjects are mostly buildings, streets, people, but also trees, because I love trees, especially when they are covered in moss like here in Brittany.

'Nachtmohn'

Many of my pictures are created by moving the camera during a long exposure, the so-called ICM, or by making double exposures directly in the camera or on the screen. This gives me the impression that I can capture several time levels or even several perspectives in one picture.  I just look at the new developments happening in my camera or on the screen - that's not unlike psychoanalysis! As humans, there are always multiple time levels inside us all the time, all what happened before in our lives, the present and how we imagine the future, and it is important to always take multiple perspectives into account.

'Il avait donc droit à cette lumière'

It was only in the last few years that I became interested in other photographers and painters and discovered the Pictorialists, especially Anne Brigman, who impressed me very much because her pictures are about atmosphere, not about sharpness and optimal image composition. That's what I love: the mood, the view on feelings, what's behind, what's indistinct, what's hidden, what's secret, what stimulates the imagination. This has a lot of similarities with my work as a psychoanalyst, by being allowed to have access to the dreams of my patients.

'Guémené sur Scorff II'

But sometimes I'm just concerned with aesthetics, with beauty, with balance, with the interaction of different shapes, which is why abstract art often also appeals to me. Since I was in Tunis in 2019 and was able to wander through the Medina for days, I also felt an interest in street photography.

'Madame'

I appreciate a lot the pictures from Vivian Meyer interesting because she always has her camera with her and photographed people in all kinds of situations. Unfortunately, today this is much more difficult and less attractive because of severe data protection reasons. Now I live in Brittany and here I often find elderly faces of men and women telling their life stories. That would be a very interesting project for the future. 1X would certainly be the right place to present my works.

'Zoé and Michael'

So far I've only uploaded my pictures on 1X because I think one has to have a good place for art. On the one hand, I really like the selection process on 1X. On the other hand - at least for me - it easily leads me to think about whether an image is good enough for 1X and this is of course a hindrance to any creative process. But here, as everywhere else, there are advantages and disadvantages. All in all, 1X is a very important forum to me and I find a level of skill, creativity and inspiration on it that is truly overwhelming!

'In one way or another ..'

Many thanks  for this interview and for the interest in my way of looking at life and photography.

'Summer'

'Loving the Blues'

'Summer Dots'

'Ploërdut'