Hans J. Petscher
was born in 1946 and lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Already as a teenager, he was fascinated by photography. As a participant of the Photo Workshop at school he developed and edited and printed his own pictures taken with his mother's inherited folding 6x9 camera, of course in black and white, Ilford FP3 (64 ASA) was the name of the film.

Hence perhaps his love for this kind of imaging, which is still predominant today. Professionally he gave in to his second passion, flying and the associated engineering. Furthermore, he never gave up photography as a serious hobby.

There followed phases of slide photography (Fuji, Kodachrome 100 and then 400 ASA), a lot of nature and of course family.

With the development of digital technology, his style of photography also changed. The sensitivity was now specified in ISO and was variable!
New possibilities. Motion-stabilized optics. Autofocus. Everything was tried out. And, sometimes, good pictures taken. Nature again, the sky, the sea, architecture, documentation.

The next big and decisive change for him came with the acquisition of his first Leica, a M9-P (Type 240). No stabilization. No automatic focusing. Rangefinder! Prime lenses (35mm, 50mm, 90mm, mostly the 50). And, with the enormous „speed“ of these optics, the available light and new extreme possibilities in open aperture photography! And thus also the extremely exciting street photography which he has rediscovered for himself! His focus (pun intended) shifted from the information content of his pictures to transport and sharing of emotions.

Opening a window to things one knows, but has probably overlooked.

Get attention, be distracted, stare, get fascinated, grasp, rethink.