Uwe Steinmueller
1 - Introduction
Uwe Steinmueller passed away on August 8th 2014. He suffered a heart attack. This
essay is intended as a testimony of my personal relationship with Uwe Steinmueller. In a way it is also a testimony about
his career. It is not intended to
be a personal history of his entire life, only a history of my relationship
with him.
Uwe Steinmueller and Natalie Briot at Point Lobos 2 - How we met
I met Uwe Steinmueller on the web, over
email. I forgot what our first
email exchange was about, let’s just say that it was
about something related to photography. What else could it be?
We soon found
out that we shared common ideas about photography, and that we had similar
views about the relative importance of art and technique. Uwe was
technically oriented and me artistically oriented, but we agreed that one had
to master both the artistic and the technical aspects of photography to create
world-class photographs. (That in short an even ratio of art and technique was
necessary to create world-class photographs)
We realized that
the direction photography was taking was more and more technical. We also
agreed that it was something hard to avoid when so many dramatic technical changes
and improvements were coming out, almost daily sometimes. We understood that digital photography
opened the door for a new form of artistic expression, one that was free of the
constraints imposed by chemical photography.
Over the years I
met Uwe and his wife Bettina a couple of times in
California, as my travels allowed. Among others I have memories of visiting Point Lobos with him,
photographing cypresses in the fog and enjoying doing photography with him,
Bettina and my wife, Natalie. I
remember that we also tested the Better Light Digital Back on that day. Point Lobos is a photographic pilgrimage
location in many ways. How could it
not, being located close to Wildcat Hill, where Edward Weston lived, and being
one of the favorite locations of Weston, Adams and many other past and current
photographers.
Patriarch
Tree, Point Lobos, California
3 - The Fine Art Photography Summit
From 2003 to 2010 Uwe,
Bettina, myself and Natalie organized the Fine Art
Photography Summit. Uwe retired from the Summit in
2011 and from 2011 onward I continued to organize the Summit with Natalie.
The
2003, 2010 and 2004 Summit Logos
During these discussions we both expressed the
desire to offer a yearly event that served as a teaching event, a seminar, and
a yearly gathering of like-minded photographers focused on fine art
photography.
From the beginning the Summit was seen as a
multi-faceted event, a combination of classroom instruction, guest speaker
presentations, field work, print exhibitions, print reviews and exchanges of
ideas among photographers through formal and informal gatherings during the
event. Above all we wanted it to be
a fun and enjoyable event because if you love photography you must have fun
doing it.
We decided to invite a different Guest Speaker
and Instructor each year. Over the
years the guest speakers and instructors have included Michael Reichmann, Jeff Schewe, Charlie Cramer, Joseph Holmes, Mac Holbert, Tony Sweet and many other world-class instructors.
We also decided to organize the Summit in a
different location each year, this location being chosen for the photographic
opportunities that it offers. Being focused on Landscape Photography,
the Summit is always organized in a stunning natural area. Over the years we have offered the Summit
in Zion National Park, Death Valley National Park, Moab (Arches and Canyonland National Parks which
incidentally is the location of this year’s Summit), Page (Antelope Canyon),
Bryce Canyon National Park, and many other fantastic locations.
Uwe and Alain teaching at the Fine Art
Summit
4 - Outback Photo.com
OutbackPhoto was intended to be a multi-faceted
website. As such, in addition to
providing a place for Uwe to display his work, it
also features camera, software and equipment reviews as well as photography
tutorials. Uwe also sold his Photoshop actions and
other photography software on Outbackphoto.com. Those continue to be available for
purchase and download as of the writing of this essay.
5 - The 9600 Diary
I published a
number of essays on OutbackPhoto.com, some of them being collaborations between Uwe and I. One of the main publications Uwe and I worked on together for OutbackPhoto.com was the
Epson 9600 Diary. This diary
covered my personal experience working with the Epson 9600 wide format printer
for several years. It became a
valuable free resource for many photographers. In addition to my personal experience, it
featured input from Uwe as well as from other
photographers working with this printer.
Here is the link
to the Epson 9600 diary:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi013/Epson9600.html
6
- Rocky Nook Books
Uwe introduced me to Rocky Nook with whom I have
published four books so far. At
that time Uwe had already published several books
with Rocky Nook. Below are some of
the most important ones:
Some
of Uwe’s books
Here is Uwe’s author’s page on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Uwe-Steinmueller/e/B001JOX8IW/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
7 - Blurb Books:
Uwe also published a number of
self-designed books on Blurb.com. Here
is Uwe’s Blurb page: http://www.blurb.com/user/ustein
In addition to Uwe’s books, each year we also published a Summit Blurb
book featuring the work of Summit participants. Uwe designed
these books for the most part although some have been
designed by Summit participants or guest speakers at times.
The
2007 and 2010 Summit Blurb books
8 - Working with others
Uwe worked with many software and hardware
manufacturers including, in no particular order: Adobe, Photomatix, HDRSoft, Canon, Xrite, UnifiedColor and many other companies.
9 - Uwe’s Fine Art Photographs
I kept the best
for last. Uwe’s work is rich and varied. For the sake of simplicity I am placing his work in
three main categories: straight photography, texture blending and HDR.
Uwe almost always photographed with his
wife, Bettina. Most of their work
is signed Uwe + Bettina Steinmueller or B+U Steinmueller because they did not separate their work into ‘his and hers’.
A - Straight photography
B - Texture blending
Bettina
+Uwe Steinmueller
C
– HDR
Bettina
+Uwe Steinmueller
10 - Where
to see Uwe’s work:
Smugmug : http://ustein.smugmug.com
http://outbackphoto.smugmug.com Photo Techniques Magazine: http://www.outbackphoto.net/news/category/californiaplaces
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/busteinmueller
Google+: https://plus.google.com/113522539725181051005/posts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ustein
Blurb: http://www.blurb.com/user/ustein
11
– Conclusion
Writing a conclusion is not
easy. What can I say? In a way, this essay itself is a
conclusion: the conclusion of a friendship and of a partnership. I could say more but I find words to be
ineffective in conveying my feelings.
In a world in which things
come and go faster and faster, I hope that this essay will be both an
acknowledgement of Uwe Steinmueller’s contributions to Fine Art Photography and a resource for finding his work on
the web. Above all I hope that he
will not be forgotten. People are
not software versions that we discard after the latest update. We need to remember and acknowledge
their contributions for the long term. This essay is my attempt towards this goal.
Alain Briot
Vistancia, Arizona
August
2014
http://www.beautiful-landscape.com
© Alain Briot 2014
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