Editorial Photography Vienna — Two Visual Worlds

When we think of Vienna, almost the same images appear every time.

St. Stephen's Cathedral. The Ringstraße. Schönbrunn Palace.

These places tell an important part of this city's story.

For this editorial we deliberately decided against them.

Not because those places are not fascinating. But because we wanted to show Vienna differently for once.

Many viewers later ask about the location. For me, however, this editorial began long before that. At the beginning there was not a place. At the beginning there was a question.

Can the same environment produce two completely different visual worlds?

Editorial at a glance

Location:: Messe Wien, Vienna, Austria
Model:: Denisa Strakova
Photographer:: Peter Scholz (SCHOPHO)
Chapter 1 — light:: available light only
Chapter 2 — light:: off-camera flash, Godox AD200 Pro II
Genre:: editorial and fashion portrait photography

The Modern Face of Vienna

Around Messe Wien, a district has grown over the past years that is shaped by glass, steel and clear lines. A place that radiates calm and is constantly in motion at the same time.

This is exactly where our story was meant to begin — not in front of a landmark, but inside a piece of city that most people simply walk through.

Model Denisa Strakova in front of dark glass facades around Messe Wien, her reflection doubling the frame in available light. — The modern face of Vienna: glass, steel and a city that repeats itself.

Reflections

Glass changes everything. It doubles a figure, it breaks a line, it lets the city appear twice in one frame.

We did not look for the perfect surface. We waited until a surface began to tell something.

Editorial portrait of Denisa Strakova beside a glass facade in Vienna, her mirrored silhouette forming a second figure. — One person, two figures — the reflection becomes a second protagonist.

Denisa Strakova in a black leather coat and white shirt against a dark glass facade in Vienna, her full reflection standing beside her. — The glass doubles the scene — and quietly changes who is looking at whom.

Denisa Strakova leaning against a glass facade near Messe Wien, her reflection mirroring the gesture. — Hand against glass — the surface answers the gesture.

Available Light

The first part of this editorial was photographed exclusively with available light. No artificial lighting. No intervention. Only architecture, reflections and the light this place brings with it.

As a result, the images feel calm, open and almost documentary. The light does not create a mood here — it reveals one.

Model Denisa Strakova mid-movement in daylight on a concrete plaza near Messe Wien, photographed without artificial light. — Daylight only — movement carries what the light does not.

A Different Direction

For the second part we wanted the opposite.

Not another location. Not another model. But another visual language.

Available light describes a place. Shaped light interprets it. The decision to introduce controlled flash was therefore not a technical one — it was the moment the editorial changed its point of view. Where the first chapter observes, the second one states.

With a Godox AD200 Pro II the light was shaped deliberately. Not in order to photograph brighter. But to gain control over contrast, depth and colour.

“The light became a creative element — not a technical aid.”

When Light Becomes Part of the Story

The Godox AD200 Pro II was never used to overpower daylight. It was used to shape it — to hold the red dress slightly apart from the glass behind it and to give the figure an edge the architecture could not swallow.

Suddenly the red dress began to compete with the architecture. The colours became denser. The shadows more precise. And the very same place felt completely different.

For this editorial I had the pleasure of working with international model Denisa Strakova. What impressed me was not her experience. It was her willingness to trust an idea completely.

Most people search for extraordinary places. By now I believe that extraordinary images are almost never made there. They are made where an idea is strong enough to give a familiar place a new meaning — the same belief behind our free Beyond Stories, the quiet observation in Executive Stories and the unrepeatable hours of a wedding.