Container Love - The House of Love

LOVE HAS NO LABEL

Our latest film and editorial, Love Has No Label, is a milestone in the truest sense. A collaboration between our own Christian Ruess, filmmaker Ben Galster and photographer Andreas Knaub, it is the very essence of Container Love and of everything we stand for. We all have got a history of going against people's expectations, and doing everything to pursue happiness. Because we know that people evolve and grow and there is no way anyone can keep them hidden in the men-made cages that are stereotypes.

AN EVER-CHANGING BODY

Berlin remains the ultimate heaven for anyone searching for their place in this world. With our new series, Container Talks, we would like to introduce you to some of the colorful, inspirational characters who made this great city their home at some point in their lives. We give you friends of our studio – pioneers, freedom fighters and the bravest of lovers. We give you beautiful diversity in movement and thoughts to take home with you. We give you the essence of the Berlin that we keep falling in love with.

THE SEASON OF LIGHT

There is something about the never ending days of the Scandinavian summer that confuses and calms the mind at the same time. Maybe it’s the immerse amount of light and illusion it creates, the illusion of having enough time. Photographer Massimo Leardini pictures capture ultimate beauty while releasing it back into the wild, into nature. In conversation with Container Love, Massimo told us about finding his tempo as an artist, how he works with nudes and why trusting nature can help each and everyone of us to discover wonderful things.

REDISCOVERING INNOCENCE

When we first heard about Pedro Pedreira’s latest photo book, Atrevido, we weren’t sure how to imagine seven years of the Brazilian photographer's work to be collected under one umbrella idea. We reached out to Pedro to ask him about how he worked with the over 80 models that made into the book, why it is important to him to relive memories and why presenting and consuming art offline can become a legitimate alternative for many.

LIFE DOESN’T WAIT FOR ANYONE

Always ready for change – Spanish photographer prodigy Carlos Darder’s images set a brilliant, touching example on how one can relive memories in the long term. After falling in love with his new book, Corazón Salvaje, we asked Carlos to tell us about the way he thinks about time, composition and how he feels himself living and working in his new hometown-of-choice, Los Angeles.

CHANGING SEASONS

To see the beauty in change – Canadian non-binary photographer and visual artist Laurence Philomene set a new standard for the ultimate self-documentary. In their new book, Puberty, we follow them through their transitioning process, exploring what living in a state of constant change can be like. We sat down with Laurence to talk about the idea behind Puberty, queer and trans people of the future and why we all should just accept that things sometimes take longer than expected.

TO SHINE A LIGHT

“Just keep an open mind and wonderful things can happen” – Nana Yaw Oduro is a young photographer living and working in Ghana, facing an exciting future with his pictures getting him more and more recognition worldwide. We sat down with one of our favorite African prodigies to talk about his eternal love for poetry, the magic of models and the challenges that a new generation of African creators are facing every day.

THE WILL TO LIVE

One doesn’t have to be brave to go to a place where terror ruled, but to ask the people living there about what they’ve gone through – award winning photographer Elliot Verdier went to Liberia to capture a country with a broken spirit that is yet too strong to give up its will to live. His latest photobook, Reaching for Dawn is not only an exceptional socio-cultural documentation of a latent trauma but a breathtaking work of art that everyone should see with their own eyes.

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

Surrendering to time never felt this easy – Ghanaian photographer Eric Asamoah shows us what the transition from boyhood to adulthood is truly about. His new series, called The Day After Tomorrow is a collection of magical pictures that will be able to change their narratives and eventually mature over time. To understand his concept better, we asked Eric to tell us more about his new, gorgeous pictures.

ON THE BOUNDARIES OF REALITY

Trans-species, multi-headed monsters, crudely constructed wooden-legged figures and other fairly disturbing creatures – Asger Carlsen is as far from being your average photographer as it can be. The New York-based artist started off his official career documenting crime scenes before opening the door to his disturbingly captivating, surreal hyper-reality. His pictures leave you with more questions than answers and yet if you miss it, you might regret it for the rest of your life.

EACH SHOOT HOLDS A MEMORY

Shane Reynolds is a photographer based in New York City. He began taking photos at 17, using his grandmas garage as a “studio”. After attending Ithaca College he spent the past few years living in New York and London. Shane now works primarily with film, which all of these pictures are on. And we are completely in love.

ALL OF ME WANTS ALL OF YOU

Sometimes, the moments we miss the most are the ones that we just couldn’t recall in great detail. Dutch filmmaker and photographer Mees Peijnenburg speaks the tear-jerkingly beautiful language of cinema: gorgeous compositions and deep, deep colors are key elements of his latest series, KISS KISS, too. We can’t help but wonder if these pictures were stills taken out of a movie, what would it be about.

I REMEMBER TOUCH

Summer melancholy never felt better - our favorite polish photographer, Leo Maki’s back with his neon colored magic that we love so dearly. Despite the vivid colors and Leo’s beautifully erotic approach, there is a certain heaviness in his art that makes his photography feel not only genuine, but true, too. We are honored and very excited to be able to feature Leo’s newest series that he created exclusively for Container Love. Enjoy!

OUR TIME TOGETHER, OUR TIME APART

Every time when we look at Shane Reynold’s photos, there is some mystery to them. It’s like getting only a glimpse of something unknown, something desirable. We want to know more, we want to know a story, any story that could have possibly led to the creation of the picture. The New York based photographer’s new series is no exception: we are stuck in time, we are losing the grip on reality, we are lovesick for someone who may not even exist.

QUEER BODY, QUEER SKIN, QUEER TATTOO

With over 50 international, queer tattoo artists included, along with extensive portraits, texts and images of all that the community has to offer, the Queer Tattoo book shows what tattooing truly is… an art.

THE SEASON OF LIGHT

There is something about the never ending days of the Scandinavian summer that confuses and calms the mind at the same time. Maybe it’s the immerse amount of light and illusion it creates, the illusion of having enough time. Photographer Massimo Leardini pictures capture ultimate beauty while releasing it back into the wild, into nature. In conversation with Container Love, Massimo told us about finding his tempo as an artist, how he works with nudes and why trusting nature can help each and everyone of us to discover wonderful things.

LIFE DOESN’T WAIT FOR ANYONE

Always ready for change – Spanish photographer prodigy Carlos Darder’s images set a brilliant, touching example on how one can relive memories in the long term. After falling in love with his new book, Corazón Salvaje, we asked Carlos to tell us about the way he thinks about time, composition and how he feels himself living and working in his new hometown-of-choice, Los Angeles.

CHANGING SEASONS

To see the beauty in change – Canadian non-binary photographer and visual artist Laurence Philomene set a new standard for the ultimate self-documentary. In their new book, Puberty, we follow them through their transitioning process, exploring what living in a state of constant change can be like. We sat down with Laurence to talk about the idea behind Puberty, queer and trans people of the future and why we all should just accept that things sometimes take longer than expected.

ANALOG HUMAN STUDIES

Art is a positive outlet that allows you to transform negativity into something that you can inspire others with – Born in Siberia, Slava Mogutin is a New York based Russian-American multimedia artist and author exiled from Russia for his outspoken queer writing and activism. A third-generation writer and autodidact journalist and photographer, he became the first Russian to be granted political asylum in the US on the grounds of homophobic persecution. Slava can be described as an author, photographer, designer, multimedia artist and activist, but more importantly he’s an exceptional human being who keeps reinventing himself and his art time and again. He has been a great inspiration to us and we were happy to finally ask him some questions.

A WAY TO REMEMBER

„In order to create imagery like this, I needed people to trust me” – while the world stood still during the pandemic, Rob Tennent spent months traveling around New Zealand, taking pictures for his simply gorgeous photobook, I’M GOING TO MISS YOU. In conversation with Container Love, the Auckland-based photographer told us about his take on remembrance, the shutter sound that made him fall in love with 120mm film and the strangest summer that will stay with us until the days that we die.

LOVE FINDS A WAY

Having memories that are dear enough to hold on to is a privilege – it was the people who made the premiere of Container Love’s Love Has No Label editorial an evening to remember. Because this is how one should celebrate diversity, queer beauty and love. This is how the premiere of Love Has No Label went down with the assistance of Berlin’s loveliest.

#VISIBLELOVE POP-UP EXHIBITION

Container Love celebrates Pride Month in Berlin's H&M Mitte Garten. Pride Month is the one month of the year that symbolizes hope for an open, diverse world without hate and discrimination for many in the LGBTQ+ community. Instead of a classic gallery exhibition, the locations are surprising and invite visitors to engage with the art, the artists and the theme #VisibleLove.

INTERZUM POP-UP GALLERY

When it comes to sustainability, individualization and personalized interactions, we are definitely on board – that was our first thought when we were invited to Interzum 2019, the world's largest trade fair for furniture production and interior design.

I PAINT BOYS

Wojciech Woś is a visual artist from Poland / based in Berlin, who shares with us not only his work, but also his personal diary – with the art of painting. Capturing emotions through portraits and telling stories of feelings and intimacy – that's Wojciech's work and aesthetic, and we love it.

CURATING MOMENTS OF DAILY LIFE

Santiago Mora is a Mexican visual artist and art director who defines his work as a curatorship of everyday life moments. He captures ephemeral energy, exploring the possibilities of the pictorial medium through the use of technologies such as digital images that he uses as a reference. His work reflects about contemporaneity, addressing issues such as communication, identity, consumerism, and sexuality.

LET ME BE YOUR CANVAS

We're in love with the paintings of Richard Stabbert. His artworks capture scenes full of togetherness, romance, longing and love. "As I begin a painting, it's as if I fall in love anew. Every brushstroke can shake me with despair or raise me in triumph. I look to the canvas like the face of a lover" We love.

EACH SHOOT HOLDS A MEMORY

Shane Reynolds is a photographer based in New York City. He began taking photos at 17, using his grandmas garage as a “studio”. After attending Ithaca College he spent the past few years living in New York and London. Shane now works primarily with film, which all of these pictures are on. And we are completely in love.

YOUNG AND RENEGADE

We're in love with the work of Zeno Spyropoulos, a Berlin-based photographer, who has just published his first photography book, YOUNG AND RENEGADE. "Showing raw moments of intimacy, and creative or sexual expression as they naturally occur, pictures that normalise a culture of sexual and bodily freedom, regardless of sexuality and background."

CODE BLUE

Leo Maki is a photographer and video maker based in Warsaw, Poland, with an eye for colorful light and beautiful portraits. Lucky Container, there's a series with its favorite color: CODE BLUE. The series is about a phrase used in hospitals in exceptional situations when the patient needs immediate attention and help - because his heart has stopped.

DON’T TELL ANYONE I WAS HERE

Ian M is a photographer currently based in Barcelona working in both film and digital photography. His exclusive series DON'T TELL ANYONE I WAS HERE explores the ideas of voyeurism and pleasure by exploring the border between loving to be observed and forgetting that someone is looking at us.

BOY COMFORT ZOOM

Yan Yufeng, born and raised in Chengdu, China, is an artist based in Milan and Shanghai. In his ongoing long-term project BOY COMFORT ZOOM, observing and exploring modern masculinity, he portraits boys and men from all over the world in places familiar to them - the models themselves pick the location for the shoot.

ALMOST NAKED

“I had just arrived in the States, I had culture shock. I was not brave enough to explore myself, so I explored myself through other people,” Shen Wei once said in an interview. The Shanghai-born, New York-based photographer created the series ALMOST NAKED by taking portraits of strangers in America. So let’s see if we are able to explore the photographer’s mind.

GENDER ROLES ARE DEAD

Anne-Sophie Guillet, Brussels based photographer, shows what it means to make gender roles fluid, or better: to make gender roles obsolete. In fashion editorials and photo series for magazines she claims that the age of stereotypes is over. It‘s all about what‘s in between.

SERES / BEINGS

Today we celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with Arden and their wonderful photo series, SERES / BEINGS. It's about the visibility and the beauty of each individual and the diversity that God has brought to this earth… or some other wacky alien.

CHOSEN FAMILY

Welcome to Daurismo – the world of Daura, a freelance film and instant film photographer. Their greatest passion is the conjugation of documentary and portrait photography to represent contrasting realities, the different paths of womanhood and the ever-expanding gender spectrum. CHOSEN FAMILY, Container Love’s main theme this autumn and title of this wonderful story.

SUMMER HOLIDAY

Asaf Einy is a photographer and video artist based in Tel-aviv. We invited him to celebrate our Summer of Love with us. Absolutely perfect for the times when not everyone has the chance to just get on the plane and fly to the beach.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

The Summer of Love continues with Kostis Fokas' latest feature on our website, CALIFORNIA DREAMING. The series was shot in California in 2019. Celebrate the sun, the colors and the California sky with us. And then let's all get naked and jump into that swimming pool together!

KISS ME I’M GOLDEN PT. 2

The Summer of Love continues with Pt. 2 of this lovely series by Annika Weertz. She joined the band Pacific Swell on their summer tour through the Basque Country, creating an authentic portrayal of a band. Jump on the tour bus with them and join the ride!

A BOOK CALLED ZWEI

The new monograph ZWEI by Berlin/L.A. based photographer Florian Hetz presents a cross-section of his work and his unmistakable visual world. In ZWEI he presents more than 200 photographs from both sides of the Atlantic facing each other and creating a dialogue between seemingly unrelated images and situations.

THE MUXES OF OAXACA

This project by Mexican photographer Nelson Morales is about the Muxe community of Oaxaca, which they are also a part of. Muxes are considered the third genre in Mexico and are quite accepted in society, however, it is not widely accepted that they have lovers publicly. In this series they enter the deepest desires and fantasies in the company of their friends and lovers.

HELLO SHERMAN

Christopher Sherman is a photographer and creative director living in Toronto and New York. We thank God that she created the Internet to bring Christopher's work to us. We have shown some of his analog works at the Container Love exhibition at the Reeperbahn festival 2017 in Hamburg.

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