B E H I N D . T H E . S Y M B O L
with Annie Crabtree



Welcome to the fourth issue of Behind the Symbol, the weekly news article which aims to go behind the dashes, at signs, beta tester and subscribers symbols to find out more about the deviants we all know (and not know!).

As mentioned last week, I am going to start featuring more unknown artists. This week’s deviant is sort of in-between - many of you will know his more popular account, and some may know of his other account. This weeks interview is with Severin Koller - =coxi and =kinderschokolade





So, tell us about yourself - some of us know you as the arrogant coxi, and others as the sarcastic photojournalist kinderschokolade, both of which are probably just internet personalities, so who is the real deviant behind the symbol?

Well, if they know me as arrogant and sarcastic, then they aren't so wrong. Though it feels strange to explain and describe myself. I bet when I ask my family, friends and love to describe my person, there will be several different versions. I bet deviantartpeople have their own versions too and if I have an image of an ass here, I’m fine with that, it's better than no image, right ?

All I can say is that internet reduces communication to a few levels. Describing a person through deviantart is like saying a wine is red or white, has about 10-12 percent alcohol and is made of grapes, but we all know there are thousand more characteristics, and only if you have tasted it, you can talk about but not when you haven't. So people that have opinion about me through DA know that I have 10 to 12 percent of alcohol in my red blood under my white skin but they're wrong when they think I was made of grapes.

Since I hate it when interviewed people, don't answer questions and beat about the bushes... I will beat myself now to answer it.

I’ll do it the way deviantart suggests it, since this interview is very related to this site:

Current Age: 19 (or barely legal)

Current Residence: black IKEA folding chair that was left in my flat after the big cleaning up

Interests: Photography (yes I am serious!), aw shit, now I have to think of something else, girls boys and some drugs

Favourite movie: The Usual Suspects (I wonder why they ask for one movie only)

Favourite band or musician: TOOL or Mike Patton, at least you can pic one or another here !

Favourite genre of music: Mike Patton (It's an own genre, you know it)

Favourite artist: that question is agony. chose here: God, mom, dad, myself, jark

Favourite poet or writer: Ernst Jandl or Dürrenmatt (again two options, thanks! )

Favourite photographer: my dad with his camera, he is also mom and god by the way

Favourite style or digital art: urban/rural or pixel/ascii art (that! is DIGITAL art)

Operating System: the surgeon's starter kit !

MP3 player of choice: I buy CDs !! I spend money on things I like, damn.

Shell of choice: haven't seen some for a while, oysters with champaign

Wallpaper of choice: my flat is three-coat plastered, wallpapers would rot after the first party.

Skin of choice: I’m used to pale white skin but I’m not xenophob though. (interesting to see the roots of DA in some relicts like this question)

Favourite game: Maexchen (see: http://www.deviantart.com/view/32909970/ )

Favourite gaming platform: I used to type in "earth" there


Favourite cartoon character: Lumpi, the moose of happytreefriends

Personal Quote: "usually I shoot people.. friends and foreign ones on the street... daily business.. sometimes they even pay me for it."

Tools of the Trade: organs

ps: please don't skip it all now. it's getting more serius !



You’re now working as a professional photographer, how did you come across your passion for photography?

I remember, years ago, actually when I was 16, I used my father's digital point and shoot to capture the idiocy of my friends and me in all sort of states, in moving and still pixels. One day, I’ve seen something that amazed me for that moment and I wanted to capture it. It was in a bar (no, not a naked woman), just a little detail, a perspective that I just discovered for myself. It was my little secret and treasure actually. I remember how excited my 16 years young heart was. I had to show it to many of my friends over the years. Today I’m not too amazed of it anymore but that thing is responsible for my start of photography that is more than just documenting adolescent teenagers (which I used to do since a few months again)

First I wanted to create something that I can call my own, like abstract images, manipulations of reality by using my photos in Photoshop, then I captured things/objects that fascinated me, like architecture mostly, then I started to make series, like my "courtyard" series and metamorphosis ( =coxi ) and since late summer last year I focus on documentation and photography of people ( =kinderschokolade ) and film photography.

It's great that you can do all that with cameras. Create, capture, document, manipulate, tell stories.. etc.



Without inspiration from both the world around us and other artists I doubt any of us would create, who inspires you the most?

At the moment people that capture in the streets like Elliot Erwitt, people that are able to shoot life like Stefan Rohner, people that shoot portraits like Inta Ruka does, people that can handle colour like Jitka Hanzlova and journalists as James Nachtwey, Robert Capa, Sebastio Salgado inspire and sometimes depress me. Also in commercial photography some have influence on me, like Christian Schmidt who is my main reference for that. I love the "Luerzer's Archive" when it comes to commercial photography !

Other photographers I admire without feeling influenced by them at the moment are: Chema Madoz, Gregory Crewdson, Claudia Rogge, Michael Kenna, Lynne Cohen, Erwin Olaf, Matthias Herrmann



We all know you’re quite the deviantART rebel - but would you say deviantART has influenced your work?

Well, of course it has. How can something you spend on hours each day can NOT influence you. I still feel that that influence which has been strong at the beginning and is now shrinking to a certain people I use to visit regularly. I had my DA-Idols, and still have a few. I remember that I was amazed by all these long exposed trains and escalators and digital perfectionists at first. Since I had no clue of photography at all, I was just impressed. Idols have changed and claims and taste too.



In the words of deviantART, what are your tools of the trade?

well I don't know what exactly "in the words of deviantart" would mean, but I think my tools of trade are sarcasm, homosexuality (with special people only), drama, hate, nonsense and often honesty, which might be the worst of all, since my opinion doesn't go hand in hand with deviantart's. I try to avoid emoteicons usually they weaken statements and take away seriousness and I also don't want them as little helpers to make sarcasm and jokes more visible, I prefer them hidden but is my favourite !



We all have our own opinions about DA - and we know you’re one of the best at expressing them openly What is your personal opinion at the moment?

I think deviantart is like life in general. If someone wants a piece of nowadays teenspirit and all it's taste and trends expressed in virtual pictures and journals and all that, he or she just needs to check out deviantart with it's popular artists and deviations, emoteicons, contests and mascots. This place is in my eyes not all about art but art is a part of it, even if just a small one, it is strong enough to keep people here that I admire.

As in life, I use to like and interact with a very small percentage of people that surround me. I can choose who this is. As in life, I like a very small percentage of art that is displayed and celebrated. I can find works amazing no one knows and others that are on the top of fame, which would be the front page in DA, the charts in MTV, main gallery of TATE modern.. etc.

So when I complain about deviantart, I can also complain about life. When I state my opinion about tokio hotel then I can also state my opinion about some popular artist here.

You can't have million of members and a place that tolerates and displays fine art only, at once, but you can have a place for million of users, for free, that has fine art in between all the other works and that's DAs gallery like.




What do you feel is the most common mistake you see people making when it comes to photography in general - what are the things you see which really annoy you?

If you have 1500$ and you want a digital slr. Buy a camera for 500$ and lenses for 1000$, no kit for 1500$. It's about the glass, not the MPs.

I could go into infinite details now..



Being both a professional and ‘amateur’ photographer, how do you differentiate between your personal and ‘work’ photography?

Work is for the client, for the agency and for the money. That doesn't mean that I don't give my best but you mostly shoot like having an home exercise. You don't shoot like you want, you shoot the way the client wants it. At least in commercial photography it is that way. It's a craft and you are the one who makes the photo and then the next loads it in the shop and after that someone in express and then comes the proof and print, you're just one ant in the system. I'm talking about studio shots, such as the citron: http://www.deviantart.com/view/31376408/

Sometimes an agency wants me (and my style of photographs) and tells me what they need and let me shoot the way I do. These are my favourite commissions, which were mostly architecture (http://www.deviantart.com/view/27377232/) but lately I was shooting some children in the kindergarden (http://www.deviantart.com/view/32754617/) which was really nice too and I had much freedom.

When I shoot for myself, then I use film since last summer, because these photos are important to me and that's why I want real ones. I like the idea behind film photography much more and can sympathize with it a lot. I have to do something for it. It's made with my own hands, eyes, mind and time. I won't start describing the main difference of my work and private photography but I can offer you two separated galleries, that show how my work has started to differ, since I shoot more and more for myself. So =kinderschokolade is about the photos the way I like them and =coxi is more the work that is less human, more eye candy, more commercial and popular taste (which includes mine too of course, I upload photos I like.. that's why I love comments, that ask if I don't find this boring, I mean of course I don't)



Do you find that the styles you work in differ depending on whether the work is professional or personal?

Yes definitely. A main difference is probably digital in professional/work and analogue in personal. Since clients want the photos quick and in best resolution and digital formats I shoot with digital and since I want to archivate my photos on negatives, develop and enlarge them myself in the darkroom I want to be able to hold that photo in my hands.

So when it comes to personally important photos, I use to keep it all natural (like colours), I want to reduce it to the minimum. I don't need to shop it much, I want it look as it looks like. I want it b/w because it is reduced to the important, expression, moment, some photographic qualities such as DOF, bokeh, contrast.. I don't want over saturated, chewingum look pictures. it doesn't need to be clean à la "neat image". I want it pure and real.

When it comes to professional/work, it needs high resolution, shiny colours and contrasts, neat DOF but still much in focus, not too abstract but also not too straight.. just the perfect middle of everything.



If you had to choose between making money from your art or growing as an artist, which would you choose?

At the moment, i make money for a living. I actually would prefer to have time for my studies at the academy but then i had to give up my living standard, so my aim is to get more and more bigger commissions, so that i have to work for some days and can live from it for one month or more afterwards and have time to study art and grow as an artist/intellectual this way.



What advise would you give to those interested in pursuing your art form?

My art form. Which one ?

Architecture ? Well in my eyes, artistic architectural photography, is interpretative. It uses architecture to make art but is not documenting it as it is. I appreciate and also practise both kinds, artistic and documenting. To give an example of the differences in my own work, I would chose http://www.deviantart.com/view/32918470/ my recently submitted work. It's about architecture without showing what the building is about. It's a detail a part separated from the whole and transformed in it's own look and forms and it lives because of that transformation and not because of the architecture itself. It's not a copy anymore, it has its own life.

In contrast to that, I have also architectural photography that is more documenting the building the best way I could do at that time. http://www.deviantart.com/view/27377232/ Is a photo of the Saturn Tower. It shows the building, even from an unusual angle but the photo mainly lives because of the shown architecture. The challenging about this is to capture it at the right time of the day, in the right weather situation. In the end you should please the client, architect and yourself, if you want to. So that means, the photo must have the quality standards for the client (usage in different media, like online, print, poster..) and should at least please the art director, publisher.. etc. Then the architect (who has the last say in many cases) must give the ok for usage. He/she wants to have their work well documented, they don't really care much if you have a wonderful eye for abstraction and details, that's nice, but not of their interest and not your business either. Of course, it can happen that you get asked for abstraction, but that's very rare in professional architectural photography.

When you want some info and tips about journalistic photography and photos of people the way I use to shoot.. I can only tell you. use prime lenses. they're faster and you learn to compose better. for street shots, use mainly small cameras. silent ones. use b/w film for that look. shoot wide. if you're too far away from the scene then it loses much power on the photo when shot with tele. go wide for journalism. use tele for classic portraits, and wide or normal focal lengths for spontaneous portraits and photos of moments.



What are your artistic personal and professional plans for the future?

I plan to finish my studies with a diploma at the academy of fine arts in Vienna. I plan to leave Vienna after finishing my education. My final aim would be, to work as an artist with camera for clients that want me, because of my signature and style. Then I’d have reached what i want to reach, artistically and professionally.



Any final words for us?

Veni vidi vici




Deviant Question:

This weeks questions comes from: db-ie

Question: “what’s the worst thing that’s happened to you while doing a shoot?”

Answer: I got kicked out of the backstage area because i had an argument with Gloria Cavalera, tour managering and wife of Max Cavalera. Her ego is even bigger than mine.



Thumbs + Fun

Name your top fav deviants of the moment and why:



he shoots photos. he makes his job well. he cares about motiv. he is straight. he is trueblood.



not only one of my best friends, if not the best, but also a photographer with skill i often look up to. i believe that i can enjoy his photos even more because i know the persons he uses to shoot.



he talks a lot. but it's true. all his praise is true and he knows why he has his tool it shows in his work. he could give a shit about b/ws and streetshots.. he is swimming in money because of digital but he cares about photography. he is no friggin "i have my shots and that's it" photographer, he is passionated. i'm sure I’ll shake these hands once. cheers !



young and talented. in my eyes these terms are highly overused. especially together but for me he is not like many others that have praise for medicore photography.



i have never had much contact with him actually.. but i have good thoughts in my mind when it comes to him. i like his work and follow it since a rather long time



she has photography the way i like in her blood. she just shoots and very well !




when it comes to architecture, i see much shit at DA. might be my high claims, still if you want to know whose archshots i like check:








he is my very first watcher on this site and i followed his work since i'm here.. he has enough for exhibitions allready. an artist with a camera



he might be a bit too romantic and kitschy when it comes to DD-picks.. but hey, on DA he might be one of the most professional photographers and he'll go far i'm sure. always liked his work !



says he is mediocore from himself... fuck that. i like his work and others too, others that have taste.



usually always quality guaranteed !



a gallery i check every few moth, cause he is not very active but each time it's worth it



has some crazy ideas. his brothers that turned out to be his cousins are as wild as his stuff !



has an eye for abstraction. his streetshots are a pleasure too

.. I’ll stop now. i could mention 20 more i think

Any thumbs we should check out?




... again there are too many left !

Any museums/art galleries/art exhibitions you think are worth seeing?

any museum of modern art in any city where you are at the moment..

Any useful/interesting/fun websites worth going to:

http://www.ball-saal.com/MainPage/home.php

http://www.magnuminmotion.com/

http://www.imdb.com/



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Next Issue


Next weeks issue of Behind The Symbol will be with *nati

If you have any questions for her please note me soon!



Behind The Symbol Contest

Yes! It’s still going on.

I haven’t got a final date yet as I am very busy - but please, still enter!

More information can be found here: http://news.deviantart.com/article/20698/