Thomas Kakareko

Born and raised in Berlin, Thomas_K is just 27 years old. In 3 short years, he's become a renowned street photographer on Instagram with over 376,000 followers. He runs his own communications agency , is an avid iPhoneographer and was recently commission to shoot the Desigual show at Barcelona Fashion Week.  

“THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CHANGED IN SOME WAY”

Can you tell me what stimulated you to first pick up a camera and shoot?

To be honest it all started for me with Instagram. Before this app was released I didn't even have a camera. In the beginning I was taking pictures of everything that crossed my lens but after some time I discovered some really amazing street photographers and fell in love with this genre of photography. Today it's a big part of my life and I couldn't be more happy about it.

Dorothea Lange said "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera". The mobile, as with the Leica many years ago appears to be driving a new generation of photojournalists, but on a much larger scale - where do you see this leading?

Mobile Photography will continue to rise. Just look at what happened during the last two years. So many people - myself included - discovered their passion for photography through it. Who knows if they would ever be able to develop their talent if it wasn‘t for mobile photography.

The lives of millions of people have been changed in some way. People started to meet up to take photos together. So many new connections were made. And I still think that we‘re at the beginning. The next big step for mobile photography in my opinion will be to take its place at the center of society. Still a lot of people wouldn‘t consider mobile photography as a legitimate art form. Looking at all the amazing pictures that are shared every day I‘m absolutely sure that it is only a matter of time.

Robert Capa once said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough". I love your shoe-lace approach to taking photos. Do you have any other stealth tactics that you can share with us?

For the pictures that I love to take it's crucial to remain unnoticed. I want to capture real emotions and expressions and what I really don't like are posed pictures. There are a lot of tricks you can use but you have to find out for yourself which one suits you best. The best advice that I can give is to be bold. People don't necessarily think that you're taking their picture especially when you're using a mobile device. You can always pretend to play a game or write a message. Try to be kind and smile a lot. I can say for sure that it helps.

You're obviously a fan of black and white and when you use color it tends to be quite subtle and understated. At what stage do you decide which way to go and what drives that decision?

For my street photography I always go for black & white. The reason is very simple. I think that it suits my photos much better than color. As I already said I want to capture emotions and color can easily distract. I want the focus to be on the people that I photograph so black & white is the perfect choice for me. Still I've been trying to get out of my comfort zone lately and do some landscape and nature photography. In this case I was happy to embrace color and I really enjoyed experimenting with it. So you see it always depends on what you want to show and what kind of story you want to tell.

We have to include this question, or we'll get lynched by your many thousands of fans: which apps do you really like and use?

Of course :) By now every single one of my edits begins inSnapseed (Apple and Android ). I just love what this app has to offer. It gives me control about a lot of things for which I had to use various apps before. Another one is Noir . Mainly because of the b/w tones it creates. It is also perfect for vignetting and lets you control things like exposure and contrast. For my color edits I recently discovered VSCOcam. I love all the different filters they have to offer and the fact that you can fully customize them. Furthermore I need Genius Scan for perspective correction and Squaready to post non-square pictures to Instagram.

“I WAS HAPPY TO EMBRACE COLOR AND I REALLY ENJOYED EXPERIMENTING WITH IT”

Finally, you've got a pretty impressive following on Instagram. Do you see Instagram as an important part of the process of creation or is it simply another "mouthpiece" for your Art?

Instagram is one of the most important parts of my creative process. You already know that it all started for me on Instagram and therefore I will always be connected to this app and community in a special way. I get lots of inspiration from the people that I follow. Browsing their pictures is the best way for me to start the day. They keep challenging me to become a better photographer. So Instagram is not only a place for me to present my pictures, it's also an endless source of inspiration.