Amelia Island revealed . . .

Submitted by Helmut Albrecht

As an engineer and artist, Helmut tries to capture the beauty and structure of the objects he photographs and creates “slices of life,” which is also the name of his photo-studio.
Tim Barnwell, an excellent photographer of portraits from characters in the Appalachian mountains, describes best what I want to achieve with my pictures:  “I don’t want to take photographs, I want to give them“.

My experience with “giving“ pictures started when I was nine years old when my godfather gave me an agfa box as my first camera. From there my photographic journey started: it took me from capturing nature and castles in the Bavarian alps to my first taste of architecture and travel photography.

Being an engineer by trade, I was always obsessed by seeing and capturing structures in my work, yet lately I am also experiencing more and more the beauty of the “structure“ of people as part of my photography.

Giving pictures has so much meaning and importance for me to express myself; it is:
• painting without a paint brush
• working with a given pallet of colors and forms
• looking for structure and chaos
• looking for beauty and the ugly
• looking for laughter and tears
• working with and without rules
• reducing color to light and dark
• putting a frame around the big picture to show the lost detail.

It is rewarding to me as photographer when people pause and reflect looking at one of the pictures I gave to them. Their interpretation will be different than mine, however I hope they still take the picture as a gift.

Editor’s Note: Helmut moved with his wife Peggy to Nassau County in 2009 to be closer to Peggy’s parents. The welcoming people of Amelia Island made us  feel at home within a short time. Helmut is employed with Science First/STARLAB in Yulee and is an advocate for hands on science education. He is an active member of the First Presbyterian Church, volunteers for Rotary and Habitat and is on the Nassau County Economic Development Board.

June 30, 2013 1:00 a.m.