Torsten Köster
Torsten Köster is a street and urban photographer living in Stuttgart. Born in 1970, he discovered his love of photography in the same decade, thanks to a pocket camera that he received at Christmas. Later he completed a classical training as a photo lab technician in a professional laboratory. Today Torsten works full-time as an IT specialist.
Torsten’s photographs are based on classical street photography: Scenes and excerpts from people in urban space. However, the human being does not necessarily have to be the main topic, but may only fit into the overall context as a creative component. On the other hand, his photographs show surfaces, shapes and details that do not contain a human component, but rather describe urban space.
Parts of his work have already been shown in several national and international solo and group exhibitions as well as published in books and magazines. In 2016, together with four other photographers from Stuttgart, he founded the collaboration “streetlab0711”.
Artist Statement
For Torsten, street photography is at first only a term. A term that describes photography in a space created by man.
He wants to capture and document this space with all its facets for himself and the future. And this with the equally numerous facets of photography, be it documentary, aesthetic, abstract or humorous. Torsten rarely goes out on the streets with certain themes in his head – he is guided by his intuition and mood as he strolls through the city. This results in a mixture that is then compressed into projects or series.
Torsten is inspired by the works of William Eggleston, Daido Moriyama and Saul Leiter. But his photography is also influenced by the artistic oeuvre of musicians such as David Bowie and Kraftwerk.
Exhibitions
2017 | Group Exhibition “Streets sans Frontières” in Paris
2016 | Solo exhibition “Stadt | Mitte” at “Galerie Pixxl” in Stuttgart
2016 | Group Exhibition of the art competition “Dementia in a frame” in Stuttgart
2013 | Solo exhibition “Kesselsicht” at the care center “Bethanien” in Stuttgart
Awards
2018 | Honorable Mention in the category “People” at the Monochrome Awards 2017
2017 | “Artist of the week” in the JaamZIN Art Magazine
2016 | Third place at the art competition “Dementia in a frame” in Stuttgart
2016 | Mark of Excellence at the “I-shot-it” Black and White Competition 2/2016
In the Media
2017 | 25 remarkable street photographers in 2017 selected by Oliver Krumes.
2017 | Listed at the overview about German street photography by Martin U Waltz
2017 | Interview with the “Fuji X Passion” magazine
2017 | Short portrait in the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” on behalf of the Instgram channel takeover.
2016 | Introduction of the exhibition “Stadt | Mitte” in the city magazine “Moritz”
2016 | Interview with the “Eye Photo” magazine
2016 | Article about the art competition “Dementia in a frame” in the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”
2016 | Article about the art competition “Dementia in a frame” in the “Stadtanzeiger Filder”
Books
2016 | Published in the Book “WeStreet 2016 – Street Photography around the Globe”
2015 | Published in the Book “WeStreet 2015 – Street Photography around the Globe”
Portfolio
