Interview with Powerslide Staff Photographer Stefan Beyer of Coburg, Germany

Stefan Beyer is a 37-year-old inline skate photographer living in Coburg, Germany. He has been working for Powerslide since 2012 and picked up recreational inline skating 5 years ago.

Stefan in Lofoten, Norway

How did you get into photography?

Photography has been my passion since I was 7-years-old when I received a small camera as a birthday present and began taking pictures of people, animals, landscapes, and everything else. In 2007 I started studying photography and passed my Master’s examination in 2010. I began shooting skate related photography when I started my job at Powerslide on January 1st, 2012.

What was your first published skating related photo?

I remember seeing my first published product shot in an advertisement for the new USD Carbon skate in Be-Mag‘s printed version. The first published skating photo I took was a picture of Bart Swings winning a race and showing his famous “Swings on Wings” gesture. This image was used in a lot of our promotions.

Bart Swings with his famous “Swings on Wings” gesture

In what print magazines have your photos appeared?

My photos mainly appeared in Be-Mag, although I did have one photo published in the printed version of Blading Deutschland.

What were some of your favorite events to shoot photos of?

My favorite events to have taken pictures of were the 2019 Berlin Marathon, the 2019 World Roller Games in Barcelona, and the 2012 World Speed Skating Championships in Italy. Although I love being outside and being on the road, shooting product photos at Powerslide is a great job!

Powerslide Christmas Shoot

Which skaters do you enjoy working with the most?

I like working together with Felix Rijhnen. He’s very professional, always kind, easy to work with, and understands which pose I need to get a picture quickly. Also, I enjoy working very much with Bart Swings, Ewen Fernandez, Laethisia Schimek, and Katharina Rumpus. They are all very friendly and super professional! It was always great to work together with my colleagues at Powerslide! Mark Heuss and Falko Quinger for example are both really good skaters and are the models I used for a lot of our products

Mark Heuss

Are there any skaters or other disciplines of skating you would like to shoot?

I’ve seen a lot of great pictures of aggressive skating throughout the years. Working together with Eugen Enin to learn a bit more about that style of skate photography would be very interesting for me.

Do you have an all-time favorite photo you’ve shot?

There are always the “winning” shots in racing that tell a remarkable story with positive feelings. My all-time favorite is the picture below I took of Felix Rhijnen winning the Berlin Marathon in 2019.

What is the most challenging photo you’ve ever taken?

The picture of Felix I just mentioned was the most challenging image I’ve shot. I was very ill that day with a fever and had to stand at the finish line in the cold pouring rain for about 45 minutes. In the end, it was absolutely worth it! The Sun came out for the last 5 minutes, and our team member Felix won the race.

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What are your goals heading into the new year?

My most significant goal is to get faster without lessening our photography quality for digitization and automation at Powerslide. Once this pandemic is over, I plan to go to events again. I want to begin taking more challenging pictures in our photo studio with different light settings, backgrounds, etc., as the learning process in photography is never over. It would be nice to start waking up earlier in the morning as these are the hours I love photography most. I also hope that it is possible to travel again because there are many destinations I could not visit this year.

Faroe Islands (Left Top) – Lofoten, Norway (Left Middle) – Chapel in Bavaria, Germany (Left Bottom) – North Lights above Lofoten, Norway (Right)

What do you currently shoot outside of skating photography?

I mostly shoot landscape photography! But I also photograph weddings, architecture, and nature in general.

Subway platform in Munich, Germany.

Is there any photographer who influenced your approach to shooting photos?

I started my photography career with artistic and animal photography. In those days, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, or Fritz Pölking were the photographers who influenced me. In skate photography, my “mentor” was Mark Heuss, who worked at Powerslide as a videographer and often showed me what visual language aggressive skaters like.

Church in Albania (left) – Balaton, Hungary (Right Top) – Waterfall in Bavaria, Germany (Right Center) – Pottenstein, Germany (Right Bottom)

Who is your favorite photographer?

There are a lot of great photographers on the planet. Nowadays, I really like Kilian Schönberger (a German landscape photographer) and Bence Máté (a Hungarian animal photographer).

Some of Stefan’s nature photography.

How has COVID-19 affected your ability to shoot skating?

Travelling was not possible in 2020, and almost all skating races were canceled due to COVID-19. There was only one small event this summer in Geisingen, a 1-hour world record race. So I only took pictures here in the local area and, of course, in the photo studio.

Powerslide product photography

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