Ralf Tooten is fascinated by the aesthetics of visual encounters and the personal radiance of human beings. He focuses his work on portrait photography and has a non-intrusive way of capturing his subjects and conveying their feelings to the viewer.
Born in Germany in 1958, Ralf has worked for prominent magazines, publishers, galleries and art exhibitions/projects since he won first prize for a magazine’s photography competition for his portraits of Russian soldiers. Ralf has also won the 1996 Fifth Polaroid Fine Arts Award in London, UK as well as the distinguished Hasselblad Master Award in Goteborg, Sweden in 2003.
After his training in architectural photography under the tuition of Clemens Hartzenbusch, Ralf worked as a still-photographer in several productions such as Volker Schlondorff’s Academy-winning ‘The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass’. Ralf’s critically acclaimed book and exhibition project ‘Eyes of Wisdom’ arose from his inspiration by, and cooperation with, fellow photographer Bernard Strathmann, during the course of his travels around the world from 1997 to 2004.
Ralf currently lives in Bangkok, Thailand.