Peter Kaaden!

Yes we are naked!

Peter Kaaden from Essen is probably one of the busiest men I know, but also one of the best and most spontaneous photographers around. Soon to leave New York and move to Berlin we talk a bit about nudity, capturing moments, and a day in his life. Be sure he is one to watch!

KALTBLUT: You are now living in New York City. How is it affecting you?

Peter: I love New York. And it’s crazy if you come from a pretty small town somewhere in Germany to this massive big never sleeping city. Life is changing a lot. Everything is so much busier and more expensive. It’s a great feeling to have all these amazing young talents and this big art scene around you. So much inspiration. It always gives you a nice pressure to refine your self. Everyday. But to be honest. I love it here but I will move back to Germany, better said Berlin, by December of this year. New York is great but at the end it just a city and the atmosphere in Berlin is more what I’m searching for at the moment.

KALTBLUT: Why do you think that to some nudity is still a taboo?

Peter: I don’t know. I think everybody in this world has internet. You can’t even google the opening hours of a restaurant without seeing 12 pairs of tits, 3 penises and some really dirty stuff. Nudity is everywhere, especially in art since more then a thousand years, but people are scared to talk about it & show it. It’s a cultural thing. Most people grew up pretty prudish and think they have to be like this. So in the anonymous internet it’s fine to enjoy nudity & porn for yourself but it isn’t okay if you talk about it. I’m young and we are a new generation…
“Hey guys, yes we are naked. No problem. It’s fun. Fuck you!”

KALTBLUT: Do you prefer to plan your photos or just capture the moment?

Peter: I prefer to capture the moment. But after some years of waiting for these moments I was getting bored. I really tried to find a way to play my shoots and but the results should be still just captured moments. I don’t create a fashion shoot and wanna know the final background and posing before. My way to shoot is running in between these two fields.
I want to create amazing, crazy or weird situations, let my models enjoy this moment and just capture what happens.

Raveonettes – “She Owns the Streets” – Directed by Peter Kaaden

KALTBLUT: What does a day with Peter Kaaden look like?

Peter: Haha. Good question. After seeing my work, especially my older pictures, a lot of people think my life is something between alcohol, drugs, partying, tits, penises and pigeons.

And yes, maybe it was like this and sometimes it still is. But at the moment I work on a lot of things and I love it. There is my first book coming out pretty soon with the Berlin based publisher pogo books. I’m planning to do my first solo exhibition and search for the right place to show it. Also there will be a tour as a photographer with a just awesome band around Europe by end of the year, more video work and I have 25 ideas everyday about what I want to shoot & work on.

Interview by Amanda M. Jansson