Roman Königshofer is a landscape, sports & travel photographer based in Innsbruck, Austria. He is available for editorial and commercial assignments internationally.
We featured a selection of his best travel and adventure photography on the @worldphotoorg feed.
Hi Roman. Please introduce your self and your photography to our audience
My name is Roman Königshofer, I'm a photographer specialising in adventure, travel, landscape and sports. I'm based in Innsbruck, Austria, in the middle of the Alps and started photography as a hobby over 16 years ago. The first photos I ever took with an SLR camera were my friend's skate & snowboarding. It all grew from there. I did a lot of filming at that time too and it was all self-taught, learning by doing. I shot a ton of slides and sometimes I also went to the darkroom and developed my own black & white images. After doing an education in mechanical engineering, I had enough of it and switched over to design. I did a degree in motion design and loved to animate things, but never loved the time of sitting in front of that screen for hours. I'm an active guy, I have to move my body to keep the ideas flowing. So I went back to the cameras professionally and basically went all in. I had some contacts in the board sport industry to start off, but the most important part for me were the projects I did in my spare time. The passion projects. I put them online and suddenly people started hiring me because of these.
Today I love to shoot authentic adventures in the outdoors. Like I said I'm very active by myself and love all kinds of "type-2 fun" activities. I guess I shoot my best images when I have to suffer a little too.
Tell us about the series of images we featured. Do you have a favourite, and why?
It's hard to choose a favourite. But I guess that's what every photographer would say. I'm grateful for all the moments and experiences I could capture over the last years. One shot definitely has a special place in my heart. It's a photo of my favourite mountain, the Ama Dablam in Nepal. I was already in Nepal for over three weeks. Then one day I got sick on a trek but had to complete it and this was definitely the worst experience I ever had in the mountains. I couldn't really breathe without coughing, I felt super weak, was super dizzy at a 5.500m (18.000 ft) pass and there was no end in sight. Somehow I made it to a little village where I spent the next 4 days lying in a bed just drinking tea and eating soup. When I felt better I couldn't wait to climb up to one of the surrounding mountains again to take images. It was hard, I still had to cough all the way up and I was so slow I missed the sunset. But I made it in time to capture the last light of the day. The sky went purple, we were above the clouds and no other people were around. Just my girlfriend and I. This was such a special moment and I'm stoked about the photo I was able to get. It will remind me about that adventure forever...
Why photography? What does the medium mean to you?
The short answer would be because I can freeze time with it. All those little moments which last just seconds sometimes are there forever when I'm able to capture it. For me it is a tool to document my life. But for sure also to show others that it's worth to go outside and explore this planet. That it is worth to take environmental protection seriously. An image can be very strong and tell a whole story in seconds. It can make people rethink their priorities. I love that the possibilities are endless with photography. You are never done learning and especially now when technology is evolving so fast. It's an exciting time to be a photographer!
Do you have a photographic philosophy?
I love the real stuff. It's not always possible with commercial photography but when I go on my own adventures I love to shoot authentic images. Some of my best shots are definitely those where the people in the image didn't even know I was taking a photo. Regarding landscape photography, it is similar. I put myself out there chasing those rare moments when the world looks like a different planet. It's then when a photo doesn't need extensive post production to make it look amazing. Because it really looked so crazy. When it's not possible to take the same shot again... That's what I'm craving in photography. But that's just me.
What inspires you?
I'm inspired by nature itself, the people close to me and of course other photographers, filmmakers and artists. But also when I'm just out there hiking, climbing, snowboarding or surfing, that's when I really refresh my brain!
romankoenigshofer.com
@rawmeyn
@worldphotoorg
