'Close Ups': Martin Schoeller's extreme portrait detail

Photographer Martin Schoeller, who grew up in Frankfurt and later trained with Annie Leibowitz in New York, where he is based, rose to fame with his "big head" portrait style taken with the camera at eye level. From Hollywood stars like Denzel Washington to world leaders like Barack Obama and, in this case, Angela Merkel, his extreme close-up portraits also took him to the streets.

"Drag Queens" is Martin Schoeller's most recent series, and remains a work in progress. In March 2020 he photographed one of Berlin's best known drag queens, though he wants her to remain anonymous. Discretion is important, he says: "Nowadays photos live on the net forever. And people are worried about their image."

By chance Martin Schoeller came into contact with the bodybuilder scene in the US. He was astonished to see how hard and exhausting the training is in the lead-up to competitions, and decided to portray their upper bodies and face in graphic detail. "I was extremely fascinated by these women who build up their muscles so that they no longer conform to our ideal of beauty," he said.

The extroverted actor is a star of stage and film in Germany, and is known internationally for his turn in the "Babylon Berlin" TV series. Martin Schoeller photographed Eidinger here for a photo series in the "DB Mobil" magazine of the German national railway operator. The idea for the sinister glass eye came from Eidinger himself, Schoeller revealed. The snake lives with its owner in Berlin.

Instead of a flash, Schoeller uses soft neon light. The background is always plain, sometimes pale grey, sometimes white. It's the perfect contrast to achieve what he has called "hyper-detailed close ups." Here, actor and director George Clooney plays with putting on a mask, a new face for a new role. For Schoeller, what counts is the precious "moment of brief thoughtlessness."

In Schoeller's extreme large-format close-ups, you can see every pore, every unevenness in the skin, every pimple, every freckle. Nothing is retouched afterwards. "We are only merciful with nose hair," Martin Schoeller told DW. The French football star Zinedine Zidane (left) sat down in front of the camera after being injured in a match.

German football celebrities such as national coach Jogi Löw (2nd from l.) posed for Schoeller's incisive camera. Schoeller and his team from NY always establish the required setting for a shoot, which only takes up a few square meters. The heavy glass plate camera is mounted at the eye level of the person opposite and positioned with millimeter accuracy. The faces look almost like landscapes.