SCREENings 2011 Jury : Emanuel Mugrauer, Head of Art Buying, Kolle Rebbe - and the wonderfully vast and colourful world world of photography

Emanuel Mugrauer is the head of art buying at Kolle Rebbe Hamburg. In general, he is always on the lookout for inspiring and unique photographer portfolios that feature that certain something, which justifies taking the photographer’s side and representing him vis a vis clients and creative professionals.

Emanuel longs for a madly varied and colourful world of photography with a fluxionary transition to video, “which makes the work, creativity, love and content tangible to every viewer, be it in a gallery, in a magazine, online or through large format features.”

His career began with graffiti projects at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin, he assisted the interior prop department at Lunaris Film, the Bavarian film distributor and production company and was the production assistant at Granz Design Berlin. Emanuel subsequently pursued a multimedia design course at the SAE Institute.

After jobs as a freelance art buyer, head of art buying at the Heimat agency, producer at Cast Events and AVENGER PHOTOGRAPHERS, he is now the supervising head of art buying at Kolle Rebbe, working for their clients, which include Hansgrohe, Google, Nike, Bionade, OTTO, Ritter Sport Navigon and Misereor.

How does such a colourful and versatile world come into existence? Mugrauer explains: “It all began with daylight portraits with a good old fashioned large format camera, new experiments with Polaroid, wonderfully designed books with new materials and unusual printing techniques, a creative approach featuring reduced and graphically satisfying videos with a subtle and sophisticated spirit in the vain of Yoshioka Tokujin / Hermès Tokyo, which are beyond the common ground of hectic and not very creative GIF animations and finally photography that is distinguished by an amazing visual composition. Something that must work in all formats.”

He also offers a few tips for new beginners: “There is no general guidance when it comes to the quality of colour, form, paper and so forth in a portfolio. However, it should still reflect the aesthetics and approach of the photographer, be it in digital or printed form, it should really be his ‘child’ - well kept and looked after.”

He urges all post-production enthusiasts to see themselves as a wizard, their seamless tricks are never questioned, but instead leave behind a trail of silent awe.

If have not yet worked with the ‘greats’, no worries. “If the first few pages of your portfolio are inspiring and truly excite us, we will most likely not ask for a list of clients”, says Emanuel. “The big challenge is what comes after discovering the talents.

So, be talented, try new things or revisit old and forgotten topics and forget about the list of clients!!" Good job, the latter does not matter at SCREENings anyway.