On the way through

Uttenreuth lies just east of Erlangen, and quite a few of my photo walks into the fields and forests around it start or end there. I rarely go to Uttenreuth to photograph Uttenreuth. I pass through it, on foot or by car, on the way to somewhere else. On a foggy February morning in 2021 the road ran straight towards the village, and the church tower stood at the end of it like a landmark to steer by.

The tower in the snow

The tower belongs to the Matthäuskirche, and with its onion dome it is easy to pick out from a long way off. Most of my photographs of it are taken from the fields outside the village, with a long lens between 185 and 300mm. At that distance the houses fall away and the tower stands on its own. Here it is half past five on a February evening, with snow on the fields and the last light fading behind it.

Yellow in October

In October 2026 a field near the village was in flower, a bright yellow carpet late in the year. From the right spot the tower rose straight out of it. A quarter of an hour later, a little further along, the same tower stood among trees turning orange and red. Over the years the light around it has come as snow, fog, low winter sun and even Sahara dust. It never looks the same twice.

Come along

Not every photograph here shows the tower. Some show what happens around it: a winter sun sinking behind a tree like a fireball, birches in the fog, a field in green and gold seen from above. None of these places are far away. They are what I find on an ordinary walk in my own neighbourhood. I would like to take you along on one, through the seasons and the light, and see what turns up.