




tobias m. schiel












When, a while ago, the lens artists challenged us to share quiet moments, instead of going through my beach and museum and travel photos, I wondered if, and how, I could show my quiet moments en miniature. Pondering several possibilities, I realized that reading almost always gives me some quiet – and that I can experience this quietness everywhere and anytime.
Today I would like to share a couple of pictures which surprisingly turned into a short story.


„Wir lesen, weil wir so tausend Leben führen können, ohne mehr als einen Tod sterben zu müssen.“ Denis Scheck
(We read so we can live a thousand lives without having to die more than one death.)

When I saw the lens-artists challenge Quiet Moment, this was the first picture that came to mind – it obviously took a while to make it, and a whole series with readers in different moments along with it. This week’s challenge seems a great starting point for sharing: Who says you can’t have a quiet moment when you’re On the Move?





“Going back” is this week’s Lens Artists Challenge; Sofia Alves takes us back to an old doors challenge. In the light of these two ideas I’d like to start this post with some back doors.
As far as toy photography goes, I love to build and photograph doors because of both their architectural and narrative potential. They are simple means of definig a building and evoking an atmosphere – back door or main? Factory or bar? Welcoming or forbidding?
A door is a passageway. This function evokes narrative. The door is closed: what’s happening behind it? The door is open: will someone walk through it? And then, what will happen?
The inside and the outside can stand for a before and an after. Thus, narrative – or the paasing of time – can be hinted at in a single picture.








Happy new year!





A happy coincidence: This picture is part of a sequence, and it is ready to be shared just the moment lens-artist Leya announced this week’s challenge #319: Setting a Mood.

Lens-artists challenge 313: cool colors.








Initially, I only wanted to make a picture of a bench, a tree and the old man on a hill, in silhouette. Then I saw the potential for a short narrative – with a very similar, epic story by Christophe Chabouté, The Park Bench, at the back of my mind. So this is also a homage to one of my favorite graphic novels.
Continue reading “A Bench”



“What have we got?” – “One dead joke, sir. GSW to the punch line. Timing seems a bit off, don’t you think?”
An entry for this month’s toy photography challenge: dad jokes. And since the picture is also a bit dramatic, this might also be a fitting entry for this week’s lens-artists challenge.