TITLE: people of bengal

The pictures from "People of Bengal" were all taken in the summer of 2012 by a photographer and musician from Germany. Sebastian "Sebel" Niehoff travelled through india for six weeks and on that journey he did some stunning pictures of people he met on the streets. A lot of these pictures were taken in the town Kalkutta, a city that was very inspiring to him. So many different kind of people on one place having so much colors and inspiration. All these pictures were shot with an old analog 50mm lense, so he always had to get very close to the people to make portraits. this is sometimes very challenging, espacially when you don´t know much about the cultural background of the people. But the people in India are very friendly and open minded. They like it very much when somebody takes a picture of them, it´s a part of there religious education. They believe that they will live forever when they are on a photo. For a photographer this is of course a great thing, because the people react friendly and open minded to a man with a camera.
Also manual focussing was a big challenge shooting with this analog lense, but the lense gave these pictures a unique flair. He also decided to take these pictures in Black and white to reduce the things on essentials, getting the focus just on the spirit of the faces.
The pictures of "People of Bengal" show the normal life of the people in India, espacially in the town Kalkutta. They show characters and strong faces in daily situations on the streets in black and white. they were all taken with the same lense that gives the pictures a unique flair and makes the series perfect.
"People of Bengal by Sebastian "Sebel"

AUTHOR: sebastian niehoff (Germany)

Sebastain "Sebel" Niehoff is a 1980 born photographer and musician from a small town called "Herne" in Germany. At the age of twenty-one he bought his first digital dslr-camera and startet taking pictures and making the first steps as a photographer. He never did something with photography before. At that time he also worked as a musician and as a songwriter for some years, wrote songs for different artists and was touring a lot in Germany and Europe as a musician and an artist. Both, music and photography was his passion. As a photographer he began to work for advertising companies and did a lot of still and food photography for different companies and startet making a business out of his talent. At the age of twenty-five he built a Studio, founded a company and got a well booked photographer in his area in Germany. But during the years he always took pictures while he was travelling the world, espacially the people of the different countries and cultures he travelled to, got in his eyes. He began to get interested in portrait and street photography on his journeys. So he did hunderets of portraits of the people on the streets and the people he met while travelling over the years. New Zealand, Marrokko, USA, Australia and some countries in Europe for example were some of his first destinations.
He always tried to show the viewer characters and strong faces and tried to find his own style in his pictures. He took photos of faces using different lenses, for example a 15mm fisheye lense. It is a big challenge making portraits with this special kind of lense and so his pictures got very unique. At that time Sebatian "Sebel" Niehoff was sponsored by the company SIGMA because they liked his own style a lot using the sigma 15mm fisheye lense. He also won some photography awards like the "Madzda Zoom-Zoom award" with one of these special pictures taken with the fisheye lense.
In 2012 he travelled through india for six weeks and on that journey he did some stunning pictures of people he met on the streets. A lot of pictures were shot in Kalkutta, a city that was very inspiring to him. So many different kind of people on one place having so much colors and inspiration. All these pictures were shot with an old analog 50mm lense, so he always had to get very close to the people to make portraits.
Also manual focussing was a big challenge shooting with this lense. He also decided to took these pictures in Black and white to reduce the things on essentials, getting the focus just on the spirit of the faces.
Sebastian "Sebel" Niehoff is a young photographer and musician with his own style and his own view on things. His songs and his pictures are very unique. He tries to combine these two kinds of arts for many years in his life and does his work always with great passion.