Klaus Thymann

Sharing his time between fashion shoots, commercial work and culture-clash reportage, Klaus Thymann has carved out his own distinctive style, but his chosen subjects ensure that it’s a style that’s continually renewing itself.

At the top of his game for many years now, London-based Danish photographer Klaus Thymann finds himself as comfortable shooting campaigns for the likes of Levi’s, Sony PlayStation and T-Mobile as regularly filling the pages of the global style and fashion press. Having cut his teeth in his early teens shooting tourists in his native Copenhagen, Thymann graduated to commercial success in his early 20s. Now in his early 30s and with credentials that include short-listings at Cannes Lions, countless photography awards and regular exhibitions around the world, he fondly remembers the simplicity of his formative job.

“I was 13 or 14-years old, and it involved working on a canal tour going around the city. It was a good little summer holiday job, and when I was working there I could process my own stuff at
night. It was good practise.”

After progressing into editorial, shooting concerts and portraits for magazines, it wasn’t long before Thymann took his first steps into advertising. Despite having a clearly defined style which even now differentiates him from his peers and is highly sought after, he attributes part of his early success to being taken under the wing of renowned Danish photographer Leif Schiller, who died earlier this year.

“I was contacted by Schiller,” explains Thymann. “He lived in New York and, as well as various other campaigns, carried out massive shoots for Hennessey. He was running a studio over there and asked me if I wanted to be a part of the setup. He took me on as the youngest photographer that they’d ever had and set me up with an assistant and studio manager. So I was just doing what I was already doing; music portraits and work for financial publications. I also shot for Levi’s at that point.”

With a continuous stream of advertising work coming his way, Thymann regularly balances out commercial briefs with editorial work. His striking shots of blue and green hues are packed with energy and crowned with abundant sky in a style which is often mimicked by his contemporaries.

Despite his natural command of light and a flair for creating stunning imagery, the past four years have seen Thymann return to his reportage roots between assignments, observing and shooting a select series of sub-cultures and bizarre yet interesting amalgamations. Gay rodeos in America, clean-living rappers in China and underwater strippers in Chile are just a small part the collection of images known as Hybrids. Having spent his free time documenting these idiosyncratic scenes, Thymann has now published them in a book of 150 images, inspired Gay Rodeo, Los Angeles by pure wonderment and curiosity.

“I’d started looking into hybrid cultures,” he says. “I thought it was a good umbrella term because I think that’s where culture’s been going recently. The power of the internet has meant that aspects of different cultures around the world are now exposed. It’s difficult for people to get unique identities now so they start merging different cultures and creating new hybrids for themselves. I started shooting it in 2003 and I’ve just been shooting, discovering and researching ever since. It’s been fulfilling to do something which is different from my other work.”