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Founder portraits, by an old friend of the family

Founder portraits, by an old friend of the family

ledge update·2 min·edition nº 02, The renaissance of making·

A press release needs a face, so on a Saturday in September we spent an afternoon in front of Markus Sippl's camera for our founder portraits. He has known my family for longer than I have been alive, which changes what ends up in the frame.

Every founder on ledge shows their face. You buy from a person, not a logo. That is the whole idea, and it applies to us as much as to anyone we feature. So when the first press release needed founder portraits of the two of us, we wanted them done properly. We knew who to call.

Markus Sippl was in my father's class at school. He has known my family for longer than I have been alive. His agency, Fotowerk, sits on Gerhardstraße in Untergiesing, Munich. He photographs people, buildings and events, has his photo books bound by hand at the Pfennigparade's bookbindery, and on the side stages 1:87 miniature figures into scenes he sells as limited editions. The line for his studio is "Bilder die bleiben". Pictures that stay.

Markus Sippl. My father's old classmate, and our photographer at work.
Markus Sippl. My father's old classmate, and our photographer at work.

He came to our office on a scooter one Saturday afternoon in September, with a Nikon. For a little under an hour and a half he walked us through the space: the long table by the windows, the wooden spiral stair, the balcony with the trees turning behind it, the desks under the attic beams, and finally the parquet, where he stood above us and shot straight down. One change of shirt, five set-ups, and the counter on his camera ran from 144 to 558. Thirty-five made the cut.

Outfit two, waiting on the table football.
Outfit two, waiting on the table football.
Markus loved the stairs as a motif. The only way is up.
Markus loved the stairs as a motif. The only way is up.
Vali and me, from above.
Vali and me, from above.

Being directed by Markus is a strange thing. With a stranger you perform a version of yourself and hope it holds. With him there is no version to perform. He has known my face since before I had any say in it, so the only thing left to do is let it show.

My face, then, was the easy part. My feet were not. Vali worked as a child model for a few years, and it shows: he finds his spot, settles into it and stays there. Markus kept saying so. "Vali rastet sehr gut ein." Vali clicks into place. I did not click into anything. I spent a good part of the afternoon looking for my standing position, and mostly not finding it.

Markus, pointing at where I was supposed to be standing.
Markus, pointing at where I was supposed to be standing.
The attic desks. The frame that reads most like a press release.
The attic desks. The frame that reads most like a press release.

The last frames were headshots by the window, and for a few of them the ledge cap went back on, because of course it did. A handful of these pictures will go out with the press release. The rest will sit in a folder until, a few years from now, someone asks us what the beginning looked like, and one of them will be the picture we both reach for.

Bilder die bleiben.

Two of the thirty-five, cap on.
Two of the thirty-five, cap on.

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