Christian Popkes, born in Germany, decided to pursue a career as a photographer while still in school. After several assistantships both in and outside of Germany, he studied photography at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and later at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences until 1995. He completed his studies with his diploma project "Über Tage" (Above Ground) and began working as a freelance photographer in Hamburg. His personal passion is always directed towards the people he portrays, whose souls he explores with particular intensity. Even as a young student, his ambition was driven by the desire to capture far more than a fleeting, superficial glimpse of the surface. With his large-format installations, he aims once again to sense and present to the viewer the relationship between people and the environments that shape them. Within just a few years, he was not only accepted into the German Association of Freelance Photographers and Photo Designers (BFF), but also appointed to the German Society for Photography (DGPh), the Association of Photographers (AOP), and the German Werkbund. In addition to his photographic work for advertising agencies and publishers in his studio in Hamburg, he has demonstrated the breadth of his creative work through his column "Popkes World of Imaging," numerous calendar and book publications, and many exhibitions and photo installations. Christian Popkes is the artistic director of the "Fotogipfel Oberstdorf" and the initiator of the photo tours through the Port of Hamburg.