Yan Seiler — Capturing Emotions
Posted by Daniele Bora on April 25th 2008 in Photo Essays, Journalist Profiles
Photo | Yan SeilerWhen an image from his latest photographic work was chosen for the cover of NEED’s Issue 4 in late 2007, Yan Seiler thought Christmas had come early.
Obviously he was pleased, but also surprised because he had not easily decided to include that particular picture in the final selection sent to our picture editors. After some hesitation, Seiler included it anyway, and earned himself his first ever cover.
The 33-year-old Swiss national’s interest in photography is indeed a recent one, spurred by the gift of an old film camera in 2004. The potential he discovered in this medium was so strong that it quickly became a love affair. “I’ve started shooting black and white films, and later on I joined a community sharing photographs on the web,” he says. “I bought a digital SLR [camera] and from that point it almost became an obsession, capturing moments, freezing emotions, atmospheres.”
Until then Seiler, who holds a degree in Computer science, had lived a quite urban life in Geneva. In search of a way of expressing his artistic drive, he decided to take a break from his office job and left for Asia where he had the opportunity to develop his photographic talent.
Photo | Yan Seiler
And Seiler’s talent has blossomed very quickly. Today, a defined, personal style pervades his work, and his images show the distress but also the hope of distant people peering at us through the camera lens with a remarkable immediacy. “I try to show the things as real as they are,” Seiler says. “I hope to transmit with my images what my eyes have seen and what my heart has felt. It is very important to have intimacy with your subjects, getting close to them brings more to the pictures I think. For me, the best picture is a memory of a moment spent with my subjects, when I look at them I remember what we were talking about, the laughter, the sadness, and the emotions.”
Photo | Yan Seiler
His travels brought him in contact with the plight of many different people in several Asian countries, an experience that gave his work a strong humanitarian slant. NGOs such as Friends of the Earth International and Global Trade Watch have used Seiler’s images for their publications and calendars, and before shooting the Breath of Life story for NEED’s issue 4, he contributed to our magazine with a story on child-labour-free textile production in Nepal.
Photo | Yan Seiler
“I see my humanitarian work as indirect, some people could see it as voyeuristic, but nowadays more than ever any visual material is needed. Photographs are witnesses of the past and the present, and can help to bring international awareness on a specific issue which would stay unknown otherwise. It is interesting to see change through photography, and I am happy to be able to make a contribution — as little as it may be.”
Photo | Yan Seiler
Photo | Yan Seiler
