John Wilhelm is a 44-year-old IT Director at a Swiss university with a passion for photography and digital art.  Some of his most wonderfully creative photo manipulations are of his girlfriend Judith and their three young daughters – Lou (5.5 years), Mila (2.8 years) and Yuna (6 months).

John’s photos are surreal and eclectic. “I guess I watched just a little too much TV and played too many videogames when I was a kid,” he said, explaining his many sources of inspiration.

Although the photographs look like much fun, we all know that getting children to work with a photographer can sometimes be difficult. “I guess if you have a healthy emotional connection to your kids they can feel if something is really important for you and then they cooperate (and if they don’t there are still sweets and candies),” John said.

“Most of my images are heavily manipulated but not all of them are compositions. If an image works straight out of the camera I just improve it (beauty retouching, cleanup, level corrections, sharpening, colors and tones, emphasize light, etc.). What I really love is to bring different images together to create something completely new,” John said, explaining his manipulation techniques.

When asked about his inspiration, Wilhelm said, “You can’t say exactly where you got a certain inspiration from. I guess I watched just a little too much TV and played too many videogames when I was a kid.”

“I had the luck to grow up in a creative family. Creative not particularly in what we did but in what ideas we were talking about, what jokes we were making etc. I think one key to creativity and the ability to work eclectically can be found in childhood and another one, of course, in the genes as well.”

“Most of my images are heavily manipulated but not all of them are compositions. If an image works straight out of the camera I just improve it (beauty retouching, cleanup, level corrections, sharpening, colors and tones, emphasize light, etc.). What I really love is to bring different images together to create something completely new.”

“A composition like my latest one, ‘Sensitive little Rotkäppchen,’ takes about 3-5 hours. A more complex project like ‘Online and Offlife’ takes 10-20 hours. Most of my work is done with Adobe Photoshop’s CC and NIK filters.”

“I think work-life balance is absolutely important. I’m so grateful to have a wonderful family, a regular job and a hobby, which of course is my absolute passion.“

The making of:

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