Esther Haase

“No matter what’s happening, no matter how crazy my life or the world is, as soon as I pick up my camera, I’m completely myself. I’m in my element. That’s my identity.” This is photographer Esther Haase’s response to the question of what identity means to her personally. And if we follow her gaze, she offers us another nuance to her interpretation. On the following pages are Esther’s parents, Fritz Haase and Sibylle Haase-Knels, who are looking back at her. Family holds a great deal of power. It’s where we grow up, gain our first experiences, acquire basic skills, learn and bear witness to so much. We carry our family background with us, regardless of where we end up later as adults. In a way, it becomes part of our personality and shapes all our relationships, whether consciously or unconsciously. We can step out of the family circle and into our own conceptions and ideas, but the start of our development always remains with us.

We asked Esther how she blends in with the story she photographed.

“It must be in our DNA ; -) For me, family and photography inevitably belong together because as a baby, my nappies were changed on the enlarger table. The bathroom smelled of developer and fixer. My parents are creatives and, at over 80 years old, they’re still working every day in their design studio in Hamburg. I grew up with photographer role models such as Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz and Sarah Moon. We had a fantastic library. Clothes and dressing up play a big role in our family. Whether it’s a bouquet of flowers or an advertising campaign, design is in everyone’s blood in our family. After training in classical dance, I also took lessons with my father, who’s a photography professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen.

My mother loves fashion, colour and design. She draws every day. Creating is like breathing for both of them. When I was 12, my fashion-obsessed mother took me to the prêt-à-porter shows by Mugler, Gaultier and Montana in Paris. This experience had a profound impression on me. My sister and I were always there at every preview and exhibition opening my parents had. Our apartment was above our parents’ studio, so we loved playing where they worked during the week. My mother still takes ballet classes today and is currently working on her third book. My father is an intellectual, a doer, an implementer, a creative director, professor and artist, a brilliant conceptualist and philanthropist, promoter and photographer. He is a wonderful speaker and has an answer to everything. My parents give me love, stand by me and are my biggest fans. I am in every way a child of my parents.”

CREDITS

Photography: Esther Haase
Talents: Sibylle & Fritz

As featured in SLEEK 74 – IDENTITY. Available in print and digital here.

A German photographer, director and artist, Esther Haase was born in Bremen in 1966. Her father, a professor of photography and design, took her to photo shoots as a child. After a classical dance education and two years of stage experience, she studied graphic design with a focus on photography at the HdK Bremen. Since 1993 she has been travelling all over the world with her camera. International magazines and advertisers, films, exhibitions, books and awards document the success of her work. For SLEEK she photographed her parents and her daughter Marlene. She lives in Hamburg and London.