World's largest photobooth at Abu Dhabi Art

French photo-artist JR has set up an oversized photobooth for the upcoming Abu Dhabi Art, taking place from November 16-19 in the UAE capital. Every visitor has a chance to pose for the camera and to take a giant paper print home.

The Long Shadow of Chernobyl

11 hours to go: Your last chance to support this important photo project by Gerd Ludwig, a National Geographic photographer. Gerd is currently in Chernobyl documenting the aftermath of the disaster from April 26, 1986. Car and driver alone cost 600 USD per day in the contaminated zone! Check out this video or go directly to kickstarter for more info.

10 Years Mercedes-Benz Regional Logistics Center Middle East

10 Years Mercedes-Benz Regional Logistics Center Middle East - Images by Martin von den Driesch

Last Thursday, the Daimler logistics center in Jebel Ali celebrated its 10th anniversary. Our studio provided 4 large-format Dubai-themed photographs. The prints were adorned by beautiful Mercedes cars standing next to them (or the other way around? In any case - we liked this combination a lot!). As a birthday gift, we presented prints of our "Bastakiya" and "Burj Kahlifa" motifs. But to whom? Find out by clicking through the slide show.

"Backstage with the Bolshoi" now available at Amazon

Our new photo-book is now also available at Amazon.com! More news on the backstage" exhibition project coming out soon. Happy New Year 2011 everyone!

photo-of-the-month August 2010: Olya on Red Square, Moscow

This month's motif leads us back to Yeltsin's Russia (1998). I took this portrait with a Kiev 88 camera - the "Ukranian Hasselblad". Very challenging to use by hand. But in this case I didn't have much of an alternative: if you use a tripod on Red Square you get stopped by militsia within seconds. You can download your personal copy here

online now: photo-of-the-month July 2010!

We've just uploaded our new photo-of-the-month and invite everyone to download a free copy (for personal usage, please mind the copyright). Originally set up as a project exclusively for our Facebook fans, due to popular request we have decided to make it available to a wider audience. Here we go. How to get your personal collector's item? Log into our webpage with pw "collection" and you'll find all info and the download links. And if you really hurry up, you can still get the JUNE photo-of-the-month before we'll take it offline by midnight!

Starting today: FREE online workshop for Apple Aperture 3

I am looking forward tonight to tune into the world's first live, FREE creative classroom. Scott Bourne will teach the fundamentals of Aperture 3 (today is a part 1 of a 3-part class). This is a great workshop for anyone interested in a smooth, efficient workflow, which allows you to edit and manage your photos with one piece of software. Creativelive.com classrooms were invented by innovative photographer Chase Jarvis. Past workshops included a hands-on session with Vincent Laforet on HDdSLR movie-making (note: the only thing topping such online seminars is to attend the real workshop, as taught here in Dubai recently!). For beginners there's a 10-week "Fundamentals of Photography" course by John Greengo that covers all the basics, from cameras and gear to composition, technique, and how-to. All creative classroom live streams are free; you have to pay to download the sessions, which allows you to watch them later on your iphone, ipad or notebook.

One year later: a look back on an exciting week in Tehran (I)

As we are nearing the 1st anniversary of the controversial presidential elections in Iran, I want to dedicate June’s “photo of the month” to this part of the world. And you are welcome to help me making a selection! Until the end of May I’ll post 1-2 times per week images from Tehran – simply leave a comment and let me know which one you like best (the one with the most votes will become the next photo-of-the-month). Not all photos are politically charged – I also spent many hours at street corners photographing the courageous motorbikers in the capital. About “photo of the month”: it’s a project currently running exclusively on my Facebook fanpage. Each month we are offering on FB one archive image for download and free (personal) usage. Just connect to my FB-fanpage and become a photography collector! And hurry up, as each photo-of-the-month is only available until the last day of the month.

Winner of our 1st photography auction announced!

Mr. Christian Gmuer, a Dubai-based financial adviser, is the winner of our 1st photography auction. Christian is now the proud owner of a limited-edition print, which depicts one of Russia’s leading ballerinas, Svetlana Lunkina, moments before entering the stage. Julia Kim, studio manager at Martin von den Driesch photography, hands Christian the photograph and the edition certificate.The image was taken 2008 at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, where the Bolshoi Ballet gave sold-out performances of “Swan Lake”. After this success, the Bolshoi returned the following year to give critically acclaimed performances of “Giselle”. For summer 2010 our studio is planning a coffee-table book entitled “Backstage with the Bolshoi”, with images from these performances.

To take part in future photography auctions, or simply to download our free photo-of-the-month, connect to our Facebook fanpage “Martin von den Driesch photography”.

Dubai World Cup 2010 - big, bigger, Dubai?!

Last Saturday Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum invited the world to discover how his latest vision worked out: the state-of-the-art Meydan racecourse, announced less than 3 years ago, opened its doors to the wider public.

You still can't bet on any of the races (it's illegal here), but if you were a jockey you had a chance to win big: the richest race saw its prize money increasing from last year's $USD6,00 Mio to a record $USD10,00 Mio - tax-free!
Even the otherwise strictly enforced Islamic rules of the Emirate were slightly eased for one night: until midnight guests could drink as much booze as one could possibly stand, all under the open sky. A giant lightshow and fireworks (Earth Day, celebrated on the same night worldwide, was courteously ignored) marked the end of the races, before Elton John and Santana finished the party in style.