1997 Japan
Tokyo, Furisode & Geisha Houses, Gotokuji, Shinjuku, Asakusa
Getting a close look into the secret Japanese, including having dinner with Yakuza people and enjoying live Geisha entertainment.
Tokyo, Furisode & Geisha Houses, Gotokuji, Shinjuku, Asakusa
Getting a close look into the secret Japanese, including having dinner with Yakuza people and enjoying live Geisha entertainment.
Detroit, Lake Michigan, Belle Isle Aquarium
Motown, empty city, empty roads, fat people, wooden houses and the nicest Aquarium I have seen.
Coney Island
I admit, I am a total Coney Island fan
Taos, Colorado River
Native American home Country, Pueblo Indians, a very busy Colorado River.
Iguazu National Park
You get wet from the Iguazu water falls standing a kilometer away from them.
Montevideo, Colonia
The City with the highest quality of life in South America.
Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Trelew, Palmar National Park, Gualeguy, Calafate, Punta Tombo, Puerto Madryn, Chacabuco, Gualeguaychu, Corrientes, Posadas, Puerto Iguazu
Buenos Aires has the best ice cream ever, thanks to the Italian immigrants. The traffic is a nightmare. My similarity with someone famous in Argentina made people stop and stare. I don’t know whose lookalike I have been.
NYC, Long Island, Caribbean Carnival Brooklyn, Coney Island, Yankee Stadium
Abroad, I always felt more German than in Germany.
New England: Boston, Salem ; Rhode Island: Glenn Farm, HWY 15, Vermont, Newport, Cape Cod, Millinocket, New Hampshire, Mt. Washington, Cog Railway
Filming the Indian Summer in New England and experiencing an international Polo tournament in Rhode Island was special.
Manila, Mindoro, Quezon City, Payatas Dump Site (Smoky Mountain), Quezon City Slums
Smoky Mountains, steaming with smells and gases from rotting compost.
Utah & Arizona
Meeting a Polygamist and his extended family, trying to understand how the wives schedules quality time with “the man”.
Seattle, Space Needle
Interviewed a guy who sells licenses for sexploitation films and who had 12 guinea pigs in his office.
Tokyo
Surprised by NHK and TBS – they make no contracts and they pay cash. Working for German Production companies, portraying quirky Japanese society.
Manhattan: The Big Snow
New Yorkers love a good challenge.
Florida: Keys, Everglades
Driving a hovercraft, getting really close to crocodiles and Pythons – in the most beautiful light.
California: Yosemite Park, Death Valley
Death Valley, cracked earth and endless roads. It was snowing in Yosemite Park, little foxes were making trails in the snow.
Phnom Penh
Travelling around the country after the Khmer Rouge “left” – accompanied by armed military guards.
Vientiane, Luang Prabang
I crossed the border from Nong Khai to Laos. Only a view tourists visited Laos in 1994. Americans investors started to move into Laos.
Penang, George Town
Most fascinating town. Artsy, old colonial buildings I got my first taste of India: Roti and a Hindu Temple – catering to rats.
Bangkok, Koh Samui, Surathani, Chantaburi, Nong Kai
Seeing the changes after 10 years. Now there was a paved road all around Koh Samui and electricity and European sex tourists everywhere.
Tokyo, Nikko, Kamakura
Focusing on video and electronic visual arts.
New York City, Texas, Houston
The Space Center Houston, NASA. I was impressed by what flew into space – and came back in one piece.
Big Island, Honolulu
Walking on the lava beach, seeing two Orcas playing around in the Pacific. It was my birthday.
Sumatra, Medan, Lake Toba, Samosir
Visiting the same places again becomes a concept which I will continue over the next 20 years.
Valletta, Rabat, Gozo Island
Mixture of cultures in a very condensed space.
New York City
I arrived the first time in Manhattan after I had visited Tokyo – and I was not impressed.
Los Angeles, Hollywood
Here I decided to change to documentary film making, the advertising scene in the 90ies was a bit annoying.
Tokyo, Fukui, Shinjuku, Asakusa, Akihabara
The Japanese “Economy Bubble” busted. I experienced my first earthquake inside a NHK TV studio, where every equipment rag was mounted from floor to ceiling. Everything was safely swinging back and forth.
London, Cornwall, Porthleven
The light is most special here, for painters and photographers.
Brestagi, Bandang, Medan, Lake Toba
Children were all excited to see a white person in their village. Most places in the countryside had no roads, no electricity no connections to the buzzling world around them.
Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chang Rai, Kanchanaburi, Surathani, Koh Pipi, Koh Samui
Bangkok, not so busy in the 90ies. Chinatown was very interesting and I started to wish to travel through China one day.
Thüringen
After the wall came down, my first contact with the former DDR in Thüringen. I was surprised to see the chaos and poverty.
Cairo
Short stop in Cairo, early morning hours at the pyramids.
Penang
A bustling place with dilapidated, old colonial buildings.
Medan, Sumatra Brestagi, Ambarita, Sinabung Volcano, Bukit Lawang, Lake Toba
Batak houses are boat-shaped with intricately carved gables and upsweeping roof ridges.
Paris
Spontaneous decisions are the best: 6 hours drive to Paris.
Colombo, Hikkaduwa, Hapatule, Ambalangoda, Wellawaya, Kandy, Gaulle
Colombo’s central bus station got blown up by LTTE. There were cows on the beach in Hikkaduwa, not tourists.
Bangkok, Surat Thani, Ko Samui, Ko Chang
Golden roofed Wat Po, monks in orange fabric, hippies and Vietnam War veterans mixed in Khao San Road. The first time for me, world history was for real, it got faces and personal stories.
Agadir, Marrakesh, Essaouira, High Atlas Mountain Range, Mirleft
First time Africa. First time to see poverty and misery.