I was born in Regensburg in December 1977 and grew up in Bernhardswald. That is where I live and work today. Since the beginning of 2007 I have been a regular member of the „Fotografische Gesellschaft Regensburg“ (Photo Society Regensburg) [ FGR ]. The basis of all my photographic work is the awareness that photography is a visual language, i.e. a form of communication which is understood all over the world. That is what makes photography valuable and unique. Photography - the visual language - is my medium. Although my professional career is a completely different one, I have been a photographer for almost all my life. I work for private customers as well as business clients, mostly however I concentrate on my personal works.



Helmut Koch - Wordless

The significance of language for the evolution of culture lies in this, that mankind set up in language a separate world beside the other world, a place it took to be so firmly set that, standing upon it, it could lift the rest of the world off its hinges and make itself master of it. To the extent that man has for long ages believed in the concepts and names of things as in aeternae veritates he has appropriated to himself that pride by which he raised himself above the animal: he really thought that in language he possessed knowledge of the world. The sculptor of language was not so modest as to believe that he was only giving things designations, he conceived rather that with words he was expressing supreme knowledge of things; [...]

(Friedrich Nietzsche; Human, all too Human)


Languages enable people to communicate to one another how they perceive the world. Concept and object are thereby mentally fused into one and form a solid, indivisible entity. The designation of an object becomes the object itself and vice versa. Visual language, i.e. the language of photography, does not know this fusion of word and object. It makes use of different means to depict the world and is not forced to take a detour by conceptualisation. Although the human brain will quickly and without any problems find words that fit photographic depiction of reality, those can never be universal. Photographs allow for a direct, individual access to reality, they communicate objects more directly and also a lot more multifaceted as possible in spoken or written language. Language conveys merely a certain perception, a certain interpretation of an object or situation. Each and every real life phenomenon gets an unambiguous word attached to it, so that there can be no confusion and so that successful communication is possible. Photographs, however, are not subject to any such conventions. They are not meant to be unambiguous. They have the right to be ambiguous by their wordlessness and that is what makes them so appealing.

Language attaches names to objects. Photography allows the object to “speak” to the observer itself. And it depends on the respective observer how and if he understands. Photography deliberately leaves it open what is the „supreme knowledge“ about each and every object. It is a modest language which does not label and does not value in advance. Every object, as tiny as it may be, has the right to stand namelessly for itself and to get its “story” across individually. This is what makes photography so appealing to Helmut Koch. He does not want to display lurid stories to which everyone has ready-made words in their minds and which therefore are not more than platitudes. Helmut Koch’s photographies are gentle hints to small, insignificant details of our reality, hints to details anybody hardly ever mentions. Helmut Koch approaches the forms and colours of reality in a wordless, unprejudiced and playful manner and makes them his motives with great care of detail. Anything is interesting enough to “have one’s say” in his medium. His pictures appear to be calm and quiet. Quiet because they do not speak a loud universal language, because they start speaking only after a while, little by little, to each individual observer. Helmut Koch appreciates and profits from the opportunity which photography as a wordless form of communication provides. Visual language is his medium. He has made visual language the medium in which he knows how to talk to the observer in a kind and gentle way. Writers create mental images which are universally comprehensible. Photographers reverse this process and create language by means of images. Photography is a distinct language which is understandable, but by no means comprehensible for everyone in the same way.