Robert Bösch: "If you don't take a picture, you certainly won't take a good picture."

Robert Bösch is internationally one of the most famous mountain and landscape photographers. A successful mountaineer himself, he worked closely with Ueli Steck, who died in 2017 on Nuptse, Nepal, and with whom he had a long-standing friendship. In the last part of our interviews with photographers, Robert Bösch gives us insights into his world and tells us more about his new photo book "No Man's Land", which contains different subjects than we are used to from him.

Robert Bösch, you are one of the most famous mountain photographers, worked closely with Ueli Steck. How has mountain photography and alpinism changed in the last decades?
Alpinism and photography have changed - how everything changes. But they are two completely different worlds, so no general statement can be made. Mountain photography today is on a completely different level than 30 years ago. For us today it is a matter of course to see perfect images and film material even from places that are difficult to access. However, we should be aware that spectacular images do not yet prove that the performance depicted was as spectacular as the images suggest.

Toro Rogenmoser, Schöllenen

Besides Corona, climate change is the most pressing issue. How do you experience the climate changes in mountain regions, in nature?
In the mountains, global warming is very obvious, recognizable even to a non-scientist. The glaciers are a very accurate indicator of how the climate is changing over a longer period of time, independent of annual fluctuations. And the glaciers are receding massively! The reasons for this, however, cannot be seen in the mountains. That's what science needs.

(Digital) photography in the processing mania: How do you see the importance of photography in times of a veritable flood of images (smartphones, Instagram and Co.)?
I can't give a general answer to that. The spectrum of photography is so broad. So what if one or the other improves the selfie or the sunset. That doesn't matter to photography. And in advertising photography, image production on the computer is an integral part of the process. In the past, you had to tinker with reality in the studio. But there is the field of snapshot photography - landscape photography is also part of it - and different rules should apply there. Because a good photograph lives from the fact that the viewer unconsciously, spontaneously thinks, wow, he has seen and 'caught' exactly the right moment, the right detail. If this thought is suppressed by the reflex 'is made on the compilation anyway', an essential part of photography will drift off into triviality.

© Robert Bösch
Chrigel Maurer, Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau

Mountaineering and photography. Both require a lot of attention. How did you connect the two worlds?
Both activities have accompanied me throughout my life. They have often overlapped. But: When I was a mountaineer, I was focused on mountaineering and photography was then - if at all - secondary. The other way round, I was in the mountains for a shooting, everything revolved around the picture - of course I had to move around in the terrain, but that usually had nothing to do with real mountaineering.

In autumn your new illustrated book "No Man's Land" will be published. What can you tell us about it now?
"No Man's Land" is a book project that I've been carrying around with me for a very, very long time. A book with pictures that were taken while I was travelling the world and staying at home on this planet with my camera. A book of deserts, cities, mountains, elephants, bullfighters, clouds, birds, lakes - of this world.

Finally, for our readers: Your tip, if you are outdoors, hiking, skiing... and want to take a good photo?
Just take it! If you don't take a picture, you certainly won't take a good picture.