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Münchner Merkur, May 1, 2016 The Photographer Counting on new beginnings: Nina Dietzel dares to start over By Kathrin Müller-Lancé and Helena Piontek Photograph by Steffen Leiprecht What would you do, if money didn’t matter? Nina Dietzel asked herself this question four years ago. Her answer, to want to become a photographer, surprised even herself. Dietzel, a Munich native, was at that time leading a design agency in San Francisco. Without much hesitation she took her camera to Paris for two months. Hours upon hours she strolled through the city, capturing fleeting moments on film. She left worries, her company, her former life behind. She knew that photography was her true passion. And with that she decided to sell her company and start over. Right from the getgo, the stars where aligned for Dietzel. A friend invites her to accompany and photograph Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a project. “A number of the early projects offered to me were over my head”, she confesses now. And after a few beginner’s mistakes, I definitely felt it would’ve been nice to have studied photography at school.” She works for magazines and newspapers – and for artists. On Alcatraz, she documents Ai Weiwei’s exhibition, that he couldn’t see in person, being under house arrest in China. “It is a huge luxury, to do what makes you happy”, says Dietzel. After more than three years, she is still passionate about photography – even if some projects can keep you going non-stop for 36 hours. “It just doesn’t feel like work”. Best of all, photography keeps Dietzel anchored completely in the here and now. But the camera isn’t always in her hands. For a spectacular sunset, she’s quite happy to put the camera away.
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SF Weekly, Jul 23 2014 Elysian Fields: New Vistas of the World's Most Picturesque City Hit S.F. By Jonathan Curiel Wednesday >>>excerpt: Emptiness is rooted in Nina Dietzel's "Paris Series" diptychs at Fouladi projects in the Upper Market area. One of Dietzel's sets features a laundromat devoid of patrons and a storefront window with a mannequin's white legs practically touching four unattached mannequin arms. Another set features a stark underground passageway with cracked beige walls next to a beige sculpture of a nude figure from behind. Colors and patterns unite the different photos in the seven diptychs, which, the gallery says, "reveal the universal tension between masculine and the feminine archetypes." They also reveal a Paris of contradictions. Beauty side-by-side with isolation. Playfulness side-by-side with deterioration. But these contradictions were always there, judging by "William Odiorne's Paris," an exhibit at Robert Tat Gallery in downtown San Francisco that showcases the work of an American photographer who lived in the city in the 1920s. One of Odiorne's most indelible photos is of a clothesline in the back of a Paris apartment building. The towels and shirts are exposed to everyone who might walk by. No one does. No one is in the image. The buildings are atrophying. The scene is beautiful and empty. Just like Dietzel's work. Just like Wolf's work. View the entire article here: Elysian Fields: New Vistas of the World's Most Picturesque City Hit S.F.