Carsten Burmeister

click the image for a printable enlargement

photo credit: Aaron Perkins

Carsten Burmeister

Check out my boys Rad & Yani, their gym and Saskia (Wikipedia)

I have been a pro photographer in the Sydney graphic arts scene since 1979. Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1947, after my professional education during the late 1960s I spent two years in Amsterdam, Holland, and much of that time in the Rijksmuseum, studying the paintings of Dutch and Flemish masters. It is there I got the inspiration for my style of photography - light is used to maximum effect, composition is all-important and attention to detail reigns. With the arrival of digital photography and Photoshop, I was given the tools to finish my pictures to my liking and thus can fulfil my vision of evocative PHOTOART. My last stop in Europe was Copenhagen - then I travelled to Asia and settled in Australia.

for your entertainment, this is my promo video

(produced for a 10 minute BNI presentation)

go also to my Video Production page

My background is still life photography, but I deem myself an urban photographer for my personal work; most pictures in PHOTOART are street shots from Sydney - I just roam the city, incessantly shooting with my Canon EOS 1Ds camera. Then I manipulate the pictures on my Apple MacBook Pro with Adobe PhotoShop. I abandoned film in early 1998 and have been a digital photographer ever since, both for my PHOTOART work and professionally.

Here you may also download a fact-sheet about the NO WAR incident involving the Opera House - check out my NO WAR - YES PEACE series. Furthermore, I also dabble in writing, don't miss my Pacifist Manifesto or indeed my en.light.en.ment book; go to my book shop ... for more on my history in photography, go to my Let's get technical page.

As an ad shooter - for 50 years - I was always in control, but also constrained. Now the chains are off. When I shoot my PHOTOART I am free. I take chances; I love that process: Not to have to worry about the outcome while I shoot … whereas in my pro career the concept, the layout were all that counted.

Mission Statement

My quest as an artist is to document my environment and to comment on life ... this is what I do: I read, watch and listen ... then think, then write. I like to think things through thoroughly and with my book en.light.en.ment I wish to inspire readers to think about things as they never thought about them before.

en.light.en.ment ... the book, a new beginning, in the making since 1987

In 1987 I set off on a spiritual journey. The insights gained culminated in a 'panharmonicon' of 150 essays about words and numbers; life and death; spirituality and philosophy; war and peace; reality, truth, truthiness … consciousness, delusion, God, happiness, love, meditation, mind, passion, religion, Zen & enlightenment ... that sort of thing.

For a few years now I have extended on the written essays in my blog ... I supplement my essays with blogs on specific subjects I write about in my book, and I also have started to provide readings of my essay as YouTube videos.

The Art Of Meditation

I have been a meditator for decades and now, with our Unity Gym operational, I have devised a meditation course and distilled it into a booklet; check it out.