Director and visual artist based in Austria, Clemens Wirth has a passion for macro photography. He definitely amazes people with his lively work from miniatur people, model building and different view of the real world in his eye-pleasing Dioramas. YTD managed an interview and got to know the artist.
YTD: Hi Clemens! Welcome to YoutheDesigner. Can you please tell us a little background about you and your creative work?
CLEMENS: Hello, nice to meet you. I’ve studied Multimedia Art at the University of Applied Sciences FH-Salzburg and work now as a director and visual artist. I live in Austria in a small town called Innsbruck, surrounded by beautiful mountains, it’s great for snowboarding and skiing here. My passion is macro photography, model building and title design. My hairs are red, but I’m not a wizard, although I love to create magical visual pieces, at least I try to.
YTD: How did you discover your love for Photography and Diorama art?
CLEMENS: During my studies I got myself a DSLR camera and started to make my first steps in macro-photography. I always loved it to experiment with things from nature as well as with everyday objects. The world and details you can find in macro photography fascinated me ever since then.
macro kingdom III from Clemens Wirth on Vimeo.
CLEMENS: For my final project in my studies, I designed a title sequence for a first world war movie called “Herbst”. At first I wanted to work with pewter figures, but the variety was very little, so I searched for alternatives and found model train figures. That was about three years ago, since then I’ve tried to specialize in diorama and model making.
Herbst – Main Titles from Clemens Wirth on Vimeo.
YTD: How do you usually start your day?
CLEMENS: I have to admit that I’m a night owl and therefore a late riser, so my day starts usually a little bit later with a good brunch and in the best case with my girlfriend : )
YTD: Describe to us your workplace.
CLEMENS: My workplace is my apartment, vice versa. The good thing in macro shooting is that you don’t need that much of space, still sometimes it can get really tight in my flat.
YTD: Who or what are your creative inspirations? What do you usually do to stay inspired?
CLEMENS: Music and films, mother nature, people and animals, chemical reactions, physics and science is very interesing and inspirational for me. From time to time during my cycling sessions some good ideas came to my mind, but the moment before you fall asleep and think crazy stuff is priceless. Sometimes a drink could work wonders, not so much the hangover on the next day.. Despite all that the mad world of the internet of course is a good place to stay inspired.
YTD: Can you share us your creative process in terms of identity design and branding? From where do you start?
CLEMENS: That depends, but usually I have a rough visual imagination in my head and then I try to build the set or scenery (diorama) from this temporary thought. I’m not so good at drawing, so I mostly skip the step with the preview sketch.
YTD: What is your most memorable project so far?
CLEMENS: Well I think the most memorable is one of my first video projects, seven years ago.. a short stop-motion video with clay figures. It’s very special to me, because I wanted to impress a girlfriend with that movie and dedicated it to her. This project (video below) made me happy and motivated me to study multimedia art. (very amateur style)
YTD: What equipment do you normally use?
CLEMENS: Canon 5Dmark2 & 3 with various macro lenses, for post production After Effects, Photoshop etc.
YTD: Any upcoming event/exhibit/shops you would like to promote?
CLEMENS: Oh thanks for that space : ). I now offer some of my photographs as fine art prints in different sizes, have a look here or at my Etsy store.
YTD: Thank you Clemens for spending some time with us.
CLEMENS: Thanks a lot YouTheDesigner!
Want more inspiration? Check out our last interview with Hanna Kregling. Share us your thoughts through the comments below and might as well suggest some artist(s) you want us to feature next! Please feel free to show us your work! Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. You can also hit us up on our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ profiles. Lastly, our RSS Feeds is open for subscription so that you can stay creative!