<h2 id="cd25a404-63d2-47f6-8b3e-d34736681e16" data-toc-id="cd25a404-63d2-47f6-8b3e-d34736681e16" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">10+ Essential Questions Answered by the World’s Most Respected Photographers</h2>Learn how the world’s best photographers shoot, think, and create — and how you can too.Above: Photo by Laurin Strele<h3 id="cccdc13d-aeed-42ab-8409-ed75c2093c01" data-toc-id="cccdc13d-aeed-42ab-8409-ed75c2093c01" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Photographer Spotlight: Laurin Strele</h3><h5 id="21e2f253-a8d9-49c0-9a48-bb55e2df93cb" data-toc-id="21e2f253-a8d9-49c0-9a48-bb55e2df93cb" style="text-align: left; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2;">Writer, curator, documentary photographer, teacher and regular contributor to the New York Times</h5><h5 id="c3cbc97b-f5c0-460f-b091-5785b1fc4ac4" data-toc-id="c3cbc97b-f5c0-460f-b091-5785b1fc4ac4" style="text-align: left; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2;"></h5>Laurin Strele is an Austrian-born documentary photographer and photojournalist whose work explores conflict, culture and social change through proximity, patience and respect. His assignments and long-term projects have taken him through Ukraine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Syria and many other countries. His photography has appeared in publications including GEO, Newsweek and Der Spiegel. His first monograph, Worlds Apart, was published by Eyeshot in 2025.<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmtsmv1qz1boe01zb94rldg59.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; width: 376px; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>You can find Laurin here: <a target="_blank" href="https://laurinstrele.com/">https://laurinstrele.com/</a> and on instagram: @laurinstrele - <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/laurinstrele/">https://www.instagram.com/laurinstrele/</a><h3 id="4d79cbaf-661d-48ab-a93f-26b19ff3ce09" data-toc-id="4d79cbaf-661d-48ab-a93f-26b19ff3ce09" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Q&amp;A with Laurin Strele</h3><h3 id="cbe92439-6593-4f86-97aa-30117acacfb0" data-toc-id="cbe92439-6593-4f86-97aa-30117acacfb0" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Vision &amp; Purpose</h3>What is your ultimate aim in photography? What are you hoping to express or achieve through your work?“My aim is to use photography as a form of witnessing. I want to bring attention to people and realities that often remain outside public view, without reducing them to symbols or headlines. A strong documentary image can inform, but it can also change how someone approaches a subject. I hope my work encourages people to look longer, question their first impressions and recognise the individual lives behind political and social events.”<div class="tableWrapper"><div class="tableWrapper"><div class="tableWrapper"></div></div></div><div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c14nf3n4n01z7bsam5y9j.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; width: 600px; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin StreleHow do you hope your photographs make people feel? Is there a particular emotion or response you’re often aiming to evoke?“I hope the photographs create empathy, but not an easy or sentimental kind of empathy. I want viewers to feel close enough to recognise something shared while still respecting the specificity of the person and place in the photograph. I often return to tensions such as tenderness and hardship, fragility and endurance, loss and hope. If an image unsettles someone’s certainty, makes them curious and remains with them after they have looked away, it has achieved something meaningful.”&nbsp;<img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c0le43imd01xz131pcwz8.jpg" alt="image" style="height: auto; cursor: pointer;">© Laurin Strele<h3 id="904e54b7-ea07-4fa2-ad11-1d396cf1d207" data-toc-id="904e54b7-ea07-4fa2-ad11-1d396cf1d207" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Inspiration and Influence</h3>Which books, exhibitions, or fellow photographers have had the biggest impact on how you see the world through your lens?“My first connection to photography came through my parents’ photo books. As a child, I spent hours looking at images from the Vietnam War and other defining moments in photojournalism. They showed me that photography could cross language and time, shape how history is remembered and give visibility to people who might otherwise remain unheard.Photographers who have influenced me include Peter and David Turnley, Don McCullin, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Steve McCurry, James Nachtwey, Dorothea Lange and W. Eugene Smith. Don McCullin’s documentary commitment and humility have had a particularly lasting impact on me.”<img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c91k93nlt01xz4h8qgp7a.jpg" alt="image" style="height: auto; cursor: pointer;">© Laurin StreleMany photographers strive to develop a unique style or voice. What practical steps helped you discover your own, or do you believe a distinct style is even necessary?“I do not think a style should be manufactured. It develops through the subjects you repeatedly notice, the distance you keep, the way you approach people and the decisions you make when editing. For me, the practical steps were learning the technical methods well enough that I could eventually trust my instinct, spending time in places without immediately photographing and becoming attentive to their rhythm. Honest criticism from experienced photographers was also important. A recognisable voice is valuable, but it should be the result of consistent curiosity and values, not the pursuit of a fashionable visual formula.”<h3 id="7e3a1cd9-143e-42d6-b717-a999e39865c5" data-toc-id="7e3a1cd9-143e-42d6-b717-a999e39865c5" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Process and Practice</h3>Can you walk us through the story and techniques behind one of your favorite photographs? What makes it stand out to you?“One photograph I would choose is Flying Wall, made at the Shaolin Monastery in China. I was working independently and spent time observing the rhythm of the courtyard before photographing. I did not direct the monks or ask anyone to repeat a movement. Gradually, I understood where the airborne monk would enter the frame and where the others tended to stretch, wait or recover. I kept the seated boys, the figures at the edges and even the tree near the centre because the photograph was not meant to be a heroic portrait of one person. It was about the complete ecosystem of discipline. The worn red wall also carries the history of countless repetitions.I used a Leica SL3 with a 24-70mm lens. My exposure, focus and framing were prepared before the leap, so when it happened I could concentrate on the people and the edges of the frame. What matters to me is that the image shows not only an extraordinary second, but the years of ordinary practice behind it.”<img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5bzwpe3lvg01z7c961528m.jpg" alt="image" style="height: auto; cursor: pointer;">© Laurin StreleWhat photographic—or broader artistic—technique do you find yourself returning to most often, and why?“I often return to layered composition. I like photographs in which several gestures or stages of a story coexist, rather than isolating one spectacular subject from everything around it. Foreground elements, architecture and apparent disorder can create depth and context if they are organised without sterilising the reality of the scene.Technically, I also enjoy working handheld at slower shutter speeds when the situation allows it. I prefer accepting that challenge and keeping the ISO low when movement is limited and I can hold the camera steadily.”&nbsp;<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c07k43i8o01xz8hw2dge7.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin StreleHow do you personally recognize when a photograph you’ve taken is truly great? What do you look for?“The subject comes first, then light and composition. A photograph can be slightly imperfect technically and still carry enormous emotion, meaning or narrative power. I look for an image that is truthful to the situation, specific to the people inside it and strong enough to remain in the viewer’s mind. It should reveal something larger without pretending that one frame can explain an entire life. If it creates connection or allows someone to see a familiar subject differently, that is more important to me than formal perfection.”<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c0qm93iqw01xz9sueeu57.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin Strele<h3 id="336bbf2e-aa2e-4b82-9bb2-930f48dd6fe3" data-toc-id="336bbf2e-aa2e-4b82-9bb2-930f48dd6fe3" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Gear</h3>What’s a piece of gear you didn’t expect to love—but now never leave behind?“It may not be the most romantic answer, but the 24-70mm zoom has become indispensable to me. Roughly 99 percent of the photographs in Worlds Apart were made with that focal range. It allows me to travel light, react quickly and move between a wider contextual frame and a closer human moment without changing lenses.I mostly work with the Leica SL3 and also carry a Leica Q2. The equipment matters because it needs to become intuitive and reliable, but it never replaces vision, preparation or time spent understanding a subject.”<img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c1ba63jar01xz6diwe0ow.jpg" alt="image" style="height: auto; cursor: pointer;">© Laurin Strele<h3 id="30adef68-3632-401c-938e-c37f42cf666d" data-toc-id="30adef68-3632-401c-938e-c37f42cf666d" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Growth</h3>Was there a particular mindset shift, technique, or experience that accelerated your learning more than anything else?“The important shift was realising that method and instinct are not opposites. You first need to understand exposure, focus, movement, light and composition. Once those decisions become instinctive, your attention can remain on the people and the situation rather than on the camera.Seeking honest criticism also accelerated my learning. Friends and family are often encouraging, but growth requires feedback from people with more experience who are willing to identify what is not working. Difficult assignments also made me question my assumptions, and that process has continually expanded my perspective and humbled me.”<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5d9eim47m901z7e1ihfuf1.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin Strele<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c1k7e3l4o01y0b1yr3e35.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin StreleWhen you hit creative blocks or feel uninspired, how do you push through? Do you have any personal strategies to reignite your vision?“I remove the pressure to produce immediately. I walk, preferably alone, and allow myself to get lost in a place. A small conversation, an unexpected gesture or simply learning the rhythm of a street can gradually reopen my attention. I have learned to be patient with myself. Days that begin slowly, when no photograph seems to work, often become productive once I stop forcing them. Curiosity usually returns through movement, observation and contact with people rather than by sitting and waiting for inspiration.”<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5cw2jk3zfi01y00evvehyt.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; width: 591px; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin Strele<h3 id="8920810e-cf92-43c7-b93e-29654b422dae" data-toc-id="8920810e-cf92-43c7-b93e-29654b422dae" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Current work</h3>Can you tell us about a recent or past project that you’re especially proud of, and what made it meaningful to you?“Worlds Apart, my first monograph published by Eyeshot, brings together several years of photography from Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, Cuba, India, China and other places. The book is not organised chronologically. Its sequence follows emotion, atmosphere and gesture, moving between distance and connection, fragility and endurance, loss and hope. The idea developed as I travelled and realised that the differences separating people are accompanied by very simple things we share, including family, love, humour, grief and the need for stability.I wanted viewers to encounter lives that may initially seem distant and still find something that resonates with their own experience. A portion of my proceeds is donated to UN Women Afghanistan, which gives the project an additional connection to places and people that have shaped my work.”<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5cgtre3qm801xz5pl04v70.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin StreleFinal thoughts…“Stay longer than feels comfortable. Observe more than you photograph, and resist the temptation to simplify a complex place into the image you expected to find. Learn the methods, but do not let technique become the purpose. Treat people with respect, remain open to honest criticism and remember that knowing when not to make a photograph can be as important as pressing the shutter. Some of the strongest images exist between action and silence..”<div style="display: flex;"><img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5185/cmv5c0vcy3kj001y0hcnk6eto.jpg" alt="image" style="position: relative; height: auto; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px auto;"></div>© Laurin StreleConclusion from Masters of PhotographyIIn this Q&amp;A, Austrian documentary photographer Laurin Strele frames his work as an act of witnessing: images that resist easy sentiment and ask viewers to look longer at the individual lives behind conflict and social change. His craft rests on patience and layered composition, as in Flying Wall at the Shaolin Monastery, where he studied the courtyard’s rhythm before shooting and kept the whole “ecosystem of discipline” in frame rather than isolating a single hero. He argues that style can’t be manufactured. It grows from consistent values, technique practised until it becomes instinct, and honest criticism from experienced peers.The takeaway for your own photography: next time you shoot, put the camera down for the first part of the session. Walk, observe, and learn the rhythm of the place before you make a single frame. Then go looking for feedback from someone more experienced than you, not just the people who’ll tell you it’s great.Thank you for reading and if you’ve been inspired by the interview and want to deepen your skills, mindset, and storytelling ability, we invite you to explore our full range of courses — featuring legendary photographers like Steve McCurry, Joel Meyerowitz, Albert Watson, and more. See all our courses here: <a target="_blank" href="https://mastersof.photography/">https://mastersof.photography/</a>At Masters of Photography, we believe that learning from the world’s best is the fastest way to unlock your own creative voice!

In this episode of Through Their Lens, documentary photographer Laurin Strele on witnessing, layered composition, finding your style and beating creative blocks. Lessons from a NYT contributor.

Through Their Lens – Laurin Strele

10+ Essential Questions Answered by the World’s Most Respected Photographers

Writer, curator, documentary photographer, teacher and regular contributor to the New York Times

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Through Their Lens – Laurin Strele

Through Their Lens – Laurin Strele

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