Please introduce yourself to our readers:
I am Jan and I moved to Berlin in December 2015 because of my family. I am 37 Years old and photography is my hobby since I was eight.

How and when  did you get into photography?
I got a camera from my father when I was eight. We were on holidays and I was allowed to fill a filmstrip. After then I used his camera every time on holidays and he gave me this camera after leaving the family. Anyway, it is a Minolta XE-5 and it is my favourite analogue camera nowadays. I love it. I had a nine years break in photography during my study time and I restarted my photography with a digital SLR in December 2009. Since then I take my camera every time with me.

It looks like you’re main focus is on street photography, did this start when you moved to Berlin?
No. I started to work in my company in June 2013 and worked in Hamburg but I lived in Kiel. I had to commute every day from Kiel to Hamburg and back. It was one and a half hours on the way per trip. I photographed the names of the trains I used. This was a game to prevent of getting totally bored. The first images of the trains and its names were done with my smartphone. But after few weeks I got the idea to take my DSLR for that. Being in train stations and taking pictures of trains led me making pictures of the people and situations on the platforms. It was interesting to watch waiting people or arrival situations. And so I started my street photography and I have my cameras always in my bag carrying with me.

What cameras do you use preferably for analog and digital?
My digital equipment is rather small. I have a Nikon D610 now and a 50mm lens.
The preferred analogue camera is, as already mentioned, the Minolta. I have a 50mm lens for this camera, too. But I got an EXA IIa with a 35mm Flektagon lens. The latter one is running without power and I like to use it very much, too. So, I am changing between both of them, the Minolta and Exa, mostly. I own a Olympus OM-101, too. Using this camera is rather strange, the feel is different to my other cameras.

What or who influenced your style?
Ehm. Uh. I think I am not influenced by someone's style. Sure every photographer gets impressions from other ones. But I don't try to copy and change their styles, ideas or topics. I am impressed by the mindset of some photographers because they are going their own ways. They have their own ideas and work on them and create very great results. I saw some interviews from Steffen Stilpirat Böttcher with Paul Ripke, Ronny Ritchel and Ben Bernschneider or Ben Hammer. I like all of them very much, I own books from them and I like to look into them from time to time. They love their photography, their projects and if they have a new idea, the will simply work on them. Long story short, they do things they want to do. This impressed me and I try to take over this mindset for my projects and my photography.

Did you try other films from KONO!?
I got a hint from a friend, that there is a ISO 6 film. I looked for it in some online shops and found the KONO! DONAU film bag with three films. I used this film in Winter and I am sure, that the winter time is to dark for that film. But I got some nice pictures and I like the colours. I am going to test and use more KONO! films, especially after using the REKORDER, which is great for street photography. I have to say, that I love the packing of paper bags including three films. I like those special details very much. I like the effects in the films like REKORDER, where one finds characters and numbers on images. This makes the results of the pictures volatile and this excitement is one thing I like to work with.

And finally, we really love your KONO! REKORDER pushed to ISO 400 results, may you please share your experience and how did you develop the film?
I saw some images of KONO! REKORDER by an online shop and I bought the three film bag. I like black and white photography and I had to try that film.
I like to test capabilities of filmstrips and my idea was to check, whether the KONO! REKORDER wants to be pushed or not. Hell yeah, it worked. I looked at the developing table for that film and transferred it to my developer. I am currently using the Kodak TMaxDeveloper. I miscalculated and came to 14 minutes of developing time at 20 degrees Celsius.

To see and read more about Jan and his work, please check:
www.j-photographie.de