James Fancourt chats to popular Berlin Instagrammer Konrad Langer…
With its 300 million (and climbing) users, Instagram has greatly facilitated mobile photography’s rise as a major force in global visual culture.
As you might expect from such a creative city, Berlin’s Instagrammer scene is fairly large – and one of the most popular posters is Konrad Langer, aka Konaction, who has – at the time of writing – around 55,000 followers from around the world.
Known for his vibrant use of symmetry and patterns, his largely architectural shots also often feature people to give them a human dimension.
What first got you interested in photography?
It was when I bought my smartphone in 2013. For me that was the start of the photography that I’m doing now. Then I started to use Instagram and I came across a lot of accounts. I was always exploring the city, so even when I didn’t take any pictures I was always out in abandoned spots and everything, with friends or alone. So that was just my way to document my explorer style. After a while I gained a certain perspective that I often used and then tried to establish a style.
Have you always been based in Berlin?
No I came here in 2011. I was studying in Leipzig for six years and also lived in Dresden. Then I went to Australia and after that I moved to Berlin. My hometown is Cottbus. It’s not very far from here, about one hour south.
There’s a lot of old mines and stuff around there, right?
Yeh that’s true, they have lots of coal mines. It’s insane, every five years there’s a village just gone, dug away. It’s a crazy landscape, kind of like Mars or something.
Last year I did a kind of mini-interview with you for an article on Instagram users, where you said you wouldn’t describe yourself as a photographer. Is that still the case?
Yes, because from an educational and technical viewpoint I’m not a professional. So if you give it a very narrow definition I’m not actually a photographer. But I take pictures and I care about my photos so in an idealistic way I would be a photographer.
