Carsten Burmeister

I am Carsten Burmeister … photographer, writer, dreamer.

This is what I do: I read, watch & listen … then think … then write.

I like to think things through thoroughly and with my book en.light.en.ment I wish to inspire readers to think about things as they never thought about them before. My book is a panharmonicon of more than 350 essays.

My quest as an artist is to document my environment.
I walk … I look … I shoot … go to my tumblr page.

Do I have kids? Yep! Check out my boys Rad & Yani and Unity Gym …

Rad Splits For C's Web

… and  Saskia,  she has a  Wikipedia  page and a  website.

Photography at its finest … this self-taught photographer shows pro-photographers a thing or two about composition and ’negative space’.

Saskia 01

Writing bio

en.light.en.ment … a new beginning, in the making since 1987

In 1987 I set off on a spiritual journey; I had previously travelled overland from Amsterdam/Holland via Greece, Turkey, Persia (Iran) to India and Nepal in 1972/73 (my Big Trip) (my other trip was to Bali) … I went back to India in 1987 to meet Guru Maharaj Charan Singh Ji.

The insights gained on my travels – and especially getting acquainted with Jiddu Krishnamurti’s writings – culminated in a ‘panharmonicon’ of 150 pages of essays about words and numbers; life and death; spirituality and philosophy; war and peace; reality, truth, truthiness, consciousness, God, service, meditation, happiness, love, duty, mind, passion, religion, Zen and enlightenment … that sort of thing.

Also on this site is the colour illustration of my Theory Of Everything that I mention in my book, in an essay of the same name.

I began writing my essays after my 1987 trip to India, but formatted them into my book – and self-published it – in 2012, with Lulu.

Photography bio

I had my last studio in Cremorne, Sydney until I retired in 2015 and moved to Balmoral (Sydney, Mosman, Australia). Balmoral … at dusk. Life is good at Balmoral. The rock shelf at Balmoral.

I had been a pro photographer in the Sydney graphic arts scene since 1979. Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1947, after my professional education during the late 1960s I spent two years in Amsterdam, Holland, and much of that time in the Rijksmuseum, studying the paintings of Dutch and Flemish masters.

It is there I got the inspiration for my style of photography – light is used to maximum effect, composition is all-important and attention to detail reigns.

With the arrival of digital photography and Photoshop, I had tools to finish my pictures to my liking and thus fulfil my vision of evocative PHOTOART … go to my tmblr page.

My last stop in Europe was Copenhagen/Denmark; then I travelled to Asia – I spent a half year on Bali/Indonesia, where I met my Australian wife – and finally settled in Australia.

Carsten Youtube

 
For your entertainment … 
this is my promo video, produced many, many years ago for a 10 minute BNI presentation; unfortunately the prudes at Google disallow the video be shown here on my website.
 
My background is still life photography, but I deem myself an urban photographer for my personal work; most pictures in my PHOTOART are street shots from Sydney – I just roam the city, incessantly shooting with my Canon EOS 1Ds camera. Then I manipulate the pictures on my Apple MacBook with Adobe PhotoShop.
 
I abandoned film in early 1998 and have been a digital photographer ever since, both for my PHOTOART work and professionally. Here is some more commercial work:  Canturi  –  Moran  … I use these two samples to show the range of my work … close up still life and involved location shots. The former digital, the latter on film.
 
As an ad shooter (for 45 years) I was in control, but constrained … now the chains are off.  When I shoot my PHOTOART I am free, especially with this indulgent hobby of mine, Erotic Photoart.
 

I take chances; I love that process: Not to have to worry about the outcome while I shoot … whereas in my pro career the concept, the layout, the outcome were all that counted.