The Luxury Network International Magazine Issue 05

The Ultimate
Bird’s Eye View
“I don’t want to
do postcard
pictures, I want
to show the
drama that happens
out there
every day”
- Stephan Romer, one of
the world’s top commercial
photographers.
When he’s not shooting in a far
flung location for the world’s most
iconic luxury car brands; Porsche,
Mercedes Benz, Aston Martin,
Stephan is pushing his own art to the
absolute extreme.
Light is his medium and the landscapes
of the world are his canvas.
Outside of his busy diary of commercial
client work, you’ll often find
Stephan high up in a helicopter edging
on the extreme limit of closeness
to the most spectacular glaciers and
mountain peaks of New Zealand
or on spontaneous reconnaissance
hikes down in the undergrowth of
the wilderness.
All the extreme angles and incredible
perspective add up to a unique
signature style that powerfully connects
with many all over the world
says his wife, Nadine who oversees
three Romer galleries located in
Dusseldorf, Queenstown and now,
Auckland.
“Literally everyone that walks in is
moved and simply blown away by
Stephan’s art – it’s like it’s alive.”
Pieces of his luxury art have been
purchased by all sorts of admirers
from Billionaires to an Arab Sheik
to hard working locals who save up
especially.
Classically trained in industrial design
before becoming a professional
photographer, Romer innately
knows the influence of the golden
ratio on his art however admits that
he doesn’t try to have it looking too
harmonious in his compositions.
What he’s after is stunning contrasts
of light and textures on the ground.
“I’d rather put the camera further
down than what you would normally
do and shoot towards the horizon.
The lower the sun, the more
dramatic the outcome” he says.
The depth and expanse of the final
result, even in some cases when he
only had 30 seconds of light leaves
many asking “is that a painting or a
real photo?”
“You push your luck a lot” Romer
says admitting sometime sit works,
sometime it doesn’t.
His personal work released catalogues
big intense skies and extraordinary
sights produced by Mother
Nature that most people only dream
about seeing.
Many of his shoot locations are true
wild territories. Like the Mt Aspiring
area, home to interconnecting
glaciers in New Zealand’s Southern
Lakes doesn’t even have a hiking
track or single road.
“There are so many remote valleys
that nobody has been yet, I think
that is very special and something
you hardly get on this planet especially
these days.”
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand
words. Romer’s panoramas are
perspex windows to the world – the
ultimate birds’ eye view that will
leave you literally speechless.
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