Antonia Baedt Cologne, Germany

Read Antonia’s Stories

Artist Statement

Only very recently I began to trust my own ability to tell stories with words, so capturing them in moving images and sounds is what I went for. I choose to work in the movie industry not because I love movies, but because I wanted to tell stories as intensely as possible.

Besides those nerd glasses I was the cliché book-worm-kid. I read everything I could get my hands on, soaking up emotions, characters and worlds like a sponge and incorporating them into childhood daydreams.
A preschool teacher introduced me to Picasso, Klimt, Monet and Dalì. I fell in love with the colors and shapes in their paintings; so vivid and strange. I started collecting postcards of art prints and places, photographs from magazines and travel brochures. They served as illustrations for the stories in my head.

Never did I consider taking photos. I was intimidated by the technology involved and to me the pictures were the inspiration for the story not the other way around. I spent an entire year travelling Australia, filling a travel journal but only brought home two photos, that I didn’t even take myself.

Then along came mobile phones with cameras and I discovered Instagram and a community of people sharing the world around them one picture, one story at a time. Now I take pictures, because I can’t paint. By sharing pictures on Instagram, I feel like I am offering something in return to people who share their stories with me.