Event Photography (2025)
I work as a senior software engineer at Finanzfluss. At the same time, I’m also the company’s unofficial event photographer. At first glance, programming and photography have little in common. One is abstract, the other visual. Yet both require patience and an eye for detail. In both cases, it’s about reducing complexity – down to the essentials.
Capturing and Preserving a Company’s Evolution
My passion for photography rests on three pillars.
- First, there’s the technical aspect that brings me joy: digital shooting with my favorite lens, the Voigtländer 35mm/1:2.0 APO Lanthar. It has no autofocus. What sounds like a limitation, I experience as a welcome counterbalance in an increasingly automated world. Every image requires a conscious decision about where to place focus.
- Then there’s the inner drive that both nurtures and challenges me – composing aesthetically pleasing images.
- Above all, I find fulfillment in immortalizing moments, creating anchors for memories along the way.
As you read this, you could take a minute to snap a quick photo of your current surroundings with your smartphone. It might seem trivial or meaningless right now. The moment is fresh – you’re fully in the here and now. But over time, the historical value of that photo would grow. When you look at it a few years from now, you might even remember this article.
For me, photos are time capsules for experiences and anchors for the feelings or thoughts they hold.
The Photographic Company Archive (Or the Dream of One)
When I joined Finanzfluss in 2022, my main focus was finding my place within the team. Over time, through new projects and shared experiences, the connections with colleagues grew more familiar and friendly. I experienced my first Christmas party, then my first team event at the company. Apart from private snapshots taken by employees, there was no centralized approach to documenting these occasions.
From this, a desire gradually emerged: to capture and preserve everyday life at the office and team events. Who knows where Thomas, Arno, and the entire team will take the company in the coming years. How wonderful it would be to look back on a small archive of internal photos?
Two things still held me back from pursuing this wish: the potentially missing trust in the process – suddenly someone would be walking around with a camera – and the expectations others might have of me once I started shooting. But by the summer event of 2024, I felt confident enough to face these hurdles.
The Leap Into the Spree
My approach was openness, because trust grows through transparency. So I emphasized beforehand that all photos would remain strictly internal until each individual – or in the case of group shots, everyone pictured – decided to make them public. The best shots emerge precisely when colleagues forget the camera is even there.
And so, in the summer of 2024, we drifted along the Spree on a few rafts. Having someone photographing alongside was unfamiliar at first for some. But therein lay the beauty of beginning: with each passing hour, it became more natural. By the time we anchored the rafts in a side arm of the Spree to jump into the water, everyone was relaxed and the photos authentic.
It was exactly the right setting for me to unfold creatively and embrace the task that was close to my heart.
Team Trip to the Kingdom of Morocco
With the trust I had earned from the team in my photographic abilities, Thomas asked me to accompany our first company trip together. The highlight of my hobby job so far, no question!
For an entire week in 2025, we flew to Marrakech and spent an intense time balancing relaxation, action-packed excursions, and above all, productive focus sessions in smaller groups. From conversations to outings to meetings, capturing the atmosphere was an inner firework for me.
In that one week, I took photos that today, a year later, invite the team to reminisce. They’ve essentially become part of our collective memory. Companies are more than products and processes – they’re made of people, relationships, and shared moments. Making this layer visible feels good.
Looking Ahead to 2026
With Finanzfluss, I’ve found an employer where I can bring my hobby into everyday work. The Christmas party of 2025 was my latest self-appointed assignment – and I’m looking forward to all the events yet to come.