120 years of YACHT: 25,000 printed photos, from slides to digital images

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• Harald Schwarzlose and Konrad Delius
• Marianne Nissen, Svante Domizlaff and Bobby Schenk
• Hans Günter Kiesel, YACHT photographer
• Lars Bolle, Editor-in-Chief digital
• Jochen Rieker, Editor
• Fridtjof Gunkel, Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Hans-Günter Kiesel, YACHT photographer

Two pictures of a good 25,000"

From 1980 onwards, he shaped the image of YACHT. What Hans-Günter Kiesel experienced as the first and last in-house photographer

During my time as a photographer for the "Hamburger Abendblatt" newspaper, I already had several points of contact with yachting. I visited boat shows, travelled to partner countries for my newspaper and accompanied shipyard presentations in Finland, Sweden and Great Britain. This is how the editorial team became aware of me and offered me a permanent position. From the "potato print" of a regional daily newspaper to a glossy magazine!

In the summer of 1980, I start working at the Travemünde Week. Publisher Konrad Delius immediately shows me where I can buy matching blue boat shoes instead of my green trainers. That much etiquette is a must. It's also going to be a very interesting time. I produce my first cover photo on a balmy summer evening on the beach in St Peter-Ording. A safety journal is to be illustrated; a life raft in action is to appear as the lead story on page one. Photos, which I take myself, are becoming increasingly important for the magazine. They are part of the magazine's identity. And they emphasise that we have actually experienced what we write about.

For my colleagues Joachim Muhs, Karin Rübner and Eric von Krause, this means first getting into the North Sea water from the photo boat called "Tintenfisch" and then climbing onto the island. The water police have been informed that we are going to burn sea flares. We don't want to trigger an operation. I wait for the right light, holding a medium-format Mamiya 645 camera in my hands, which is bulkier than a 35mm SLR, but offers better resolution. This is crucial for the title. After two days I get the slides back from the lab. The photo is selected by the graphic artist at the light table, using the "thread counter", a small magnifying glass. Yacht 21 is published on 8 October 1980 and is 298 pages long. And my first cover picture on the front!

For the next few years and decades, I will accompany almost all YACHT tests from then on. Sailing, equipment and charter trips inspired me. Every new Hallberg-Rassy, for example, is tested by us back then in Sweden. The shipyard manager, Christoph Rassy, is always there and personally cooks homemade fish soup on board. It tastes delicious. And so it becomes part of a small tradition.

At the beginning of the eighties, the magazine was still mainly illustrated with black and white photos, which I developed and enlarged myself in the laboratory. Gradually, however, the magazine became more colourful. My Leica with manual focus is not suitable for photos at sea, because I need one hand to hold the camera and the other for my Pentax autofocus camera. I have to change the film after 37 shots at the latest - without allowing splash water to get into the housing. I'm often below deck when the boat and sails are in the best position for the sun. I couldn't even dream of the blessings of digital photography back then. But analogue was also possible.

One of my most memorable missions took me to England with Uwe Janßen and Jochen Rieker in July 2001. We chartered a Moody 36 and sailed across the English Channel to meet Wilfried Erdmann before he arrived in Cuxhaven. A difficult endeavour, because the Channel is large and the wind is blowing from the west at 7 to 8 Beaufort. We spend the night waiting at anchor in a bay with a cross swell. The movements are so strong that the crockery in the galley rattles. They make me totally seasick.

We weigh anchor early the next morning. The fresh sea air wakes me up again, and around midday we actually spot a sailor on the chine. Is it Wilfried? Indeed, it's him! I'm wide awake and run a dozen films through the magazine, as many as possible. Because it's a historic moment. Back in July 1985, I had the honour of welcoming Wilfried after his first non-stop circumnavigation, back then in Kiel. Both events became YACHT titles, in issue 16/1985 as well as in issue 16/2001.

The turning point in photography came for me a year later. From then on, I could forget all about the manual aspects of analogue photography. The new age of photography began with my Nikon 5000. The first digital photo was taken in February 2002 and I am still fascinated by the ability to view photos immediately after taking them and, if necessary, repeat or vary them. And then the rapid progress! An iPhone Pro of the latest generation can do more than the first three generations of my Nikon professional cameras.

All in all, I must have published a good 25,000 pictures and dozens of cover photos, plus photos in over 100 Delius Klasing reference books. From 1980 until my retirement, there wasn't a single YACHT without a photo of me. When the "Hamburger Abendblatt" published a story about me, its former in-house photographer, it headlined it with: "Business trip to paradise". There's no better way to put it. Incidentally, I didn't have an employment contract for the 27 years of permanent employment. A handshake from the publisher was enough.