Online photo shooting with Zoom

WHO ARE WE? - the result at the end of 2020

Over the last 24 years Wolf Nkole Helzle has photographed over 50,000 people in Germany, Europe, Asia, Africa and America for his global art project. The new time quality now makes these encounters possible online: The whole world with him in his studio.

After all invitations for this participatory photo project were cancelled or postponed this year due to current contact restrictions, the artist had to ask himself how this, his life project, could continue. He found out that his life energy and artistic intention have not changed due to the restrictions caused by the Corona. The vitality and the will to live finds ways and means to express itself anew under changed environmental conditions.
In the last few weeks and months Helzle has developed a concept for an online encounter, which is indispensable for a photographic recording. His first idea of asking participants to send him a photo of themselves was rejected as too distant. 

Real encounters can also take place online. Taking a photo takes max. 2 minutes. There is no queue. You release your photo.

And so the media artist is now available online :

from 2 - 30.11.2020 from 14-16 clock CET

Join the Zoom meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6166277231?pwd=NUZxTXRBYS9lNnNmblUvZ0J5NytMdz09
Meeting-ID: 616 627 7231
Kenncode: 201360

Regio TV feature (2,5 minutes) click on the picture to play

Previous experience
Until yesterday, I was online for 30 days from 2 pm to 4 pm via zoom and 70 people logged in during this time. Already in the first few days, participants from the south of France, from Zurich and from the mountains of Gifu in Japan registered. Then friends from Tokyo, Izmir, Turku, Lusaka and Kinshasa, from Spain, America, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, from Michelbach, from Stuttgart, from Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Bochum, Gammertingen and Apfelstetten ... What a wealth of encounters, what a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas, some participants I haven't seen for many years. With this project I have learned, among other things, that the intensity of the encounters has not suffered in any way from the online conditions.

What happens to the finished work?
After completion of the project at the end of November 2020, the results will be shown both here online on this site and in Wolf Helzle's next exhibition.

Online Fotoshooting
As soon as you have logged on to the video conference, the previously physical meeting now takes place via screen and otherwise does not have to lose any of its warmth. This means that after we have greeted and exchanged views, I take a screenshot of you.
After a short editing we release the finished portrait together. With the release you agree that I may use this photo in the context of the artwork.

HOMO UNIVERSALIS_online: Face(s) of the Lockdown
From all photos taken during this online photo shooting, I calculate the collective portrait, in which each individual participant photo is included equally.
You can follow the development until the completion on 30.11.2020 on this website, which is updated daily

What you have to do
1. LIGHT
Please position yourself so that you have a white or light background behind you with your notebook or smartphone. This could be a white wall or a sheet.
Your face needs to be well lit. If necessary, use a table or floor lamp which you point at yourself.
2. ZOOM
Zoom is a common software for video conferences. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet for both Windows and IOS. There is also a free version for smartphones, which can be downloaded from the appropriate app store.
Install Zoom using this link: https://zoom.us/download and then start the software
Enter this meeting ID in the appropriate fields: 616 627 7231, and your name. Click on „Join“
Enter this password 201360
Then click on „Join the meeting“. The connection is established

PDF-Document: Description and instructions for participating in the participatory photo project HOMO UNIVERSALIS_online“(please click on "PDF document")

Should something not work, please contact me by e-mail: mail@helzle,com or call me on the phone: 0170-1887140

Wolf Nkole Helzle at the online photo shooting in his studio in Obermarchtal

My interest in all my travels has always been to learn more about who we are. And what have I found out so far? On the one hand, each of us is very individual and very different (I have never met two identical people), at the same time we are all members of the same species (with eyes, mouth, nose, nervous system, etc.), it is like a miracle of infinite variations of the same. 

With the help of a software for video conferencing I am able to connect online with people from all over the world from my studios in Mehrstetten and Obermarchtal and take pictures of them on the screen. From all portraits I create a collective portrait by highly transparent layering, for which I have developed special software