In 1998 I was on an extensive concert tour as a saxophon player accompanied by Uli Lenz, the piano player, throughout South East Asia. During that trip I got so inspired by what I had seen and experienced there, especially in Vietnam, that I decided to focus more on photography in my work. 

From the very get go I was certain that I wanted to photograph people.

As a musician I traveled all over the world and it was fascinating to me, that all the people’s faces I had the chance to looke at seemed familiar. It’s impressive: we all seem to know each other... Nowadays I experience this wonderful phenomenon as a photographer even more intensively. I have a lot of respect and loving distance for the people I photograph despite my intended „lack of distance“ to my protagonists in the pictures. ... http://www.johannes-barthelmes.net/c5/index.php/english/vita/