Jens Kotlenga is an educator by profession, a traveller by choice and a photographer by heart. He picked up photography from his parents and started doing commercial work in his teens, photographing at proms and weddings to earn pocket money. After graduating from high school he could not make up his mind to pursue photography as a career. He opted for degrees in English literature and History instead. Fortunately though, throughout his career he has been able to derive synergies from all three fields he passionately cares about.

Amongst others, Jens mentions photographers like Ansel Adams, Minor White, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Eliot Porter and Ulrich Mack as his sources of inspiration. His main interest lies in exploring landscapes, architecture and industrial settings.

"When forms and lines fall together to compose an image, when surfaces and textures become visible and light makes the essence of the object in front of the lens visible - this is the moment when time stands still and waits for the photographer to capture the scene." It is these moments that he chases on hikes close to home and on exploratory trips abroad.

Jens maintains the importance and value of producing fine prints on suitable archival papers as the ultimate goal of his photographic endeavours, displaying these in his home or collecting them in large-format printed portfolios to share with friends.

More recently his focus has tended to move away from color photography to monochrome work. This was partly in response to his rediscovering the joys and challenges of analog photography. 

After living for lengthy periods in Southern Africa and South-East Asia, Jens is currently based in Germany. 

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