We started taking pictures, when we made a trip around the world in 1992. Since then African wildlife has been the focus of our photography. What started as a means to share our stories with the people back home has become a profession for Tanja. She uses our photos to create illustrations for her children's books. In 2010, she started her own publishing company, twikga. We were lucky to travel...
Jeder arbeitet anders. Bei manchen geht es nur mit lauter Musik, ich kann mich nur bei absoluter Stille konzentrieren. Gerade versuche ich fotografische Wimmelbilder für meine neues Buch zu bauen. Aber leider ist die Stille, die ich dafür brauche im Moment weit zu Suchen. Meine Nachbarn haben mir eine Baustelle vor die Nase gesetzt. Ungefähr 10 Meter von meinem Arbeitsplatz entfernt wird von...
Winterzeit, die Tage sind kurz, draussen ist es dunkel und kalt. Der Garten lockt nicht mit seinen sommerlichen Temperaturen. Nur Duvel kriegt mich vor die Tür für einen Hundespaziergang, wonach ich gerne wieder ins wohlige Warm verschwinde. Dort pendle ich zwischen meinem Schreibtisch, der Kaffeemaschine und dem Küchentisch, wo immer eine Zeitung liegt für die kleinen Pausen zwischendurch. Die...
The illustrations in Tata&Squack, The BIg Journey are a mix of photographs, drawings and collages. The photographs for the illustrations were taken in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and in the Masai Mara in Kenya. A lot of the wildebeest, especially Moyo, are ink drawings. To set him apart a bit, Moyo is slightly bigger and sturdier than the average wildebeest. I had a hard time with...
In early 2008 we started to develop the story of Tata&Squack - The Big Journey and the characters in word and in design. Questions had to be answered: what would we like her to wear, which colors, what kind of body-lanquage do we want her to display in the illustrations. This development process I loved tremendously; the creation of something new. It took more than a few brainstorms to...
Squack is more than a little chubby creature on a key chain. In the book Tata&Squack the Big Journey, he becomes Tata's friend. Tata's parents are researchers, who studied the migration of the Wildebeest in the Serengeti. When their assignment is over and they fly back home Tata is sad. The flight attendant passes by with a basket full of toys. She picks Squack. Suddenly out of a magic swirl...
Taking pictures in the dark is fun, but it does not give you material to work with for a book. We experimented with flash lights, torches and even car lights. We had a lot of laughs, but the conclusion was that in the bush, with limited equipment, it is merely impossible to light up bigger areas. The lights reflect on the nearest object and will leave everything beyond that point in shades or...
Hippos will go through a lot of trouble to prevent sunburn. Often you will find them piled into the last remaining ponds of water, where they will keep on spraying their dung. The result is often a bad-tempered, loud and smelly scene. This Phanhabs illustration was inspired by a different kind of hippo pool. It is located in the North Luangwe, a very remote national Park in Zambia. We stayed...
