David Lohmueller

 
David Lohmueller is a freelance photographer and photojournalist from Freiburg / Germany. Growing up in a family of artists who loved to travel, he was born with a passion for exploring the world and photography. The former sports scientist is particularly fond of long overland journeys and simply being on the move with a backpack. He hitchhiked from Germany to Gambia, crossed the Panamericana by public transport, rode an old moped from Freiburg to Morocco and traveled to Indonesia without a plane.

Since 2015 he has been dealing in detail with the topic of flight and migration. He was a volunteer on the so-called Balkan route and got to know the life and hardships of refugees in transit camps on the Serbian-Croatian border, in the symbolic Idomeni refugee camp and the Greek hotspot Moria up close. Overwhelmed by his experiences he started to document the realities he witnessed on a daily basis through photography. In Lebanon and northern Iraq, he traveled to regions in the Middle East that have taken in millions of refugees as a result of the Syrian civil war and the fight against IS.

In his pictures, David Lohmueller shows people who try to actively take their destiny into their own hands, for a better future, for themselves and their children. Complex, often contradictory emotions are told in their stories and can be seen in the faces. In doing so, he not only arouses empathy, but also encourages an intensive examination of questions of global responsibility, justice, humanity and solidarity. With his live reports on the subject of flight and migration, which he also presents in cooperation with Amnesty International, he provides valuable educational work in public events, schools and universities.

For his new project he is regularly on the island of Lampedusa and travels to countries in Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. In the long term, he would also like to focus on migration caused by climate change.