Konstantin Dahlem
http://www.konstantindahlem.com
Konstantin Dahlem was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1961. He went to Germany at the age of four, where he moved to Mannheim with his parents. At the age of fourteen, he performed in diverse music clubs as a guitarist in a rock and blues band. Hardly seventeen years old, the young musician moved to West Berlin to launch a career in music. But the West Berlin of those days was not receptive to his Jimi Hendrix sound. In musical terms, the city was already orienting itself to a newly arisen youth culture in which punk music had established itself. Following three years of a life of excess in West Berlin, Konstantin Dahlem returned to Mannheim penniless and in poor health. An introverted phase of his life began, in which he grappled with differing musical styles, but also devoted himself to painting and writing. A few literary publications followed. The music style he was now playing was influenced by Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. As before, he was yet again forced to admit that there was not much interest in his music. In 1987, he finally retired from the music business, drew comics and kept his head above water with jobs as an unskilled worker. In the evenings, he took part in vocational training measures that were not really oriented to artistic pursuits. Following stays in Asia and South and North America, from where he retained many impressions as memories only, he decided to buy a camera to record his impressions on paper from now on. After only three months, he had clinched a number of paid photo shooting sessions, learning how to handle the camera during these sessions. He achieved with photography what he had never managed as a musician. He was in the right place at the right time. Konstantin Dahlem has been working for the advertising and music industries and model agencies for many years now. His portfolio includes portrait, fashion, beauty and erotic pho-tography. As far as he is concerned, it makes no difference whether he is photographing fashion or nudes. The end product just has to be good.