VINCE VOLTAGE in Photo-Art

“… the beautiful in the ugly, the elegance in the grotesque.”

Vince Voltage comes from a small picturesque coastal town in southern Germany and has been self-taught in photography for over ten years: “I hate instruction manuals – so I just started,” he grins. One of his works of art also adorns our new Orkus! calendar 2025. His style is unmistakable – breaking taboos is almost a must, although this is never artificial, but always stems from a certain necessity. We talk to the likeable, exceptional artist, who also has a lot to offer musically.

Orkus: When did the idea of getting into photography first occur to you? Was there a kind of key experience?
Vince Voltage: Absolutely. In my new book “Bis ganz nach oben – die Kunst des Aufstiegs”, which has coincidentally just been published, I write in the chapter “Titten und Taucherglocken” about how I found my vision – or rather, how it found me. I started with photography during the first European tour with Pussy Sisster. When I wasn’t doing coke or plowing over groupies by the kilo, I was walking around the cities we were touring with my camera. Soon I got bored of just photographing metropolises and started photographing people. The idea for my first Photoshop composing came to me between Miami and Key West, while visiting a diving bell museum. As part of my “Iron Republic” series, I photoshopped martial diving bells onto the bodies of my models. Shortly afterwards, the series was exhibited at the Stuttgart District Court.

O: What is your favorite thing to do in front of the camera?
VV: I am generally interested in exciting motifs. Excitement is created by breaking with the expected – for example by bringing together atypical elements such as diving bells and petite models. My motifs should tell stories, trigger emotions and invite you to look for beauty in the ugly, elegance in the grotesque – and vice versa.

O: Your pictures have a very personal, often extremely daring style. Is there anything you can’t imagine ever photographing?
VV: Boring things that have already been photographed a thousand times. When I go to Tokyo, I don’t photograph the Tokyo Tower, but the fish stall in a side street. I don’t photograph women in shopping carts, with Indian jewelry in a cornfield or with a whisky bottle between their legs. These motifs are hackneyed – and they suck. I like the offbeat, the non-obvious. I’m not interested in the trivial.

O: And what would you really like to have in front of the lens?
VV: Fortunately, I live in the luxury of already having been able to realize many of my ideas. I still have handwritten notes in a secret place with around five hundred ideas waiting to be realized. I would have to start living healthier to be able to realize them all.

O: Do you also like having yourself photographed?
VV: Of course I like to put myself in the limelight – especially in my trademark “Neo Dark Art” style. An artist should also embody his work to a certain extent.

O: Tell us about your most exciting or unusual experience with studio photography so far.
VV: In those ten years, there’s probably nothing that hasn’t happened in my studio. People have met and fallen in love, and three of my shoots have ended in hospital. As punishment for all the debauchery, God sent me a plague of rats and a flood last year – disasters of biblical proportions. The studio was restored with the help of my friend Dino Sadino and has been welcoming monthly visits from free spirits and creatives from all over the world ever since.

O: What excites you most about photography today?
VV: Showing the world through my eyes. Everything that surrounds you – the chair you’re sitting in, the screen you’re looking at, and the Vince Voltage poster you’re languishing in front of – all of that was once someone’s idea. It was a spark in a pink, wobbly lump until someone decided to press that vision into reality.

O: Do you also have a fashion label now? How did this happen? Please tell us about it!
VV: My very good friend Christian Eberle, a creative visionary, organizes the most important kink fashion show in the stratosphere every year in Munich. It was his idea to turn my motifs into wearable works of art – fashion for the brave. “Dare to wear” is the motto. I realized the whole thing with 28 models at this year’s Venus Berlin. Of course, typical Voltage show elements such as minced meat, spray cream and glitter were not to be missed. The spectacle was rounded off with Dino’s accessories and some avant-garde creations by T2, who collaborated with Voltage Couture for this event.

O: You are also talented musically and have released an album with “Hard Rock Survivor”. You were in a band long before your career as a photographer. How did that come about and what part do you play in it?
VV: I spent eight years making a living as a guitarist with Pussy Sisster, recording two albums and playing countless shows. But every road leads to an end, and I decided that the Baltic Open-Air 2018 would be my last show as a live guitarist.

O: And how did “Hard Rock Survivor” come about?
VV: I had taken a liking to recording my own album where nobody really had anything to say but me. That’s why it turned out so well. It also became apparent that photography offered more potential for creative realization.

O: What does the near future of Vince Voltage look like? What is planned?
VV: I’m currently preparing a few promotional appearances and book signings for my new book. Then I’m working on designs for my new Voltage Couture collection, which I’ll be showing at Avantgardista next year. Then I’m off to Berlin for the Fetischnale at the Pandora Gallery, where you can marvel at my first drawn works alongside an art installation (top secret, of course). I’ll only reveal that there will be rain capes for the visitors – for the occasion. The Sanctuary Party is coming up in January, where I will be showing my last installation with Lola Noir, which has the meaningful name “The Last Solo”. I will also be musically active again. The VAI Project, which I created, uses AI technology to realize various musical visions. It also goes into the dark industrial corner, with songs like “Fuck Art – Let’s Fuck” or “AI Will Kill Us All”, which can already be heard on Spotify. I’ll also be playing a few DJ gigs as part of this. Let’s see where the journey takes me.

O: Is there anything you can’t do?
VV: Accepting your own shortcomings and limits. I don’t like it when someone tells me what to do and I find it very difficult to accept that something shouldn’t be possible. And I’m not that good at trampolining either.

O: What is your personal connection to the black scene?
VV: Quite a lot. I have brought you a colorful (or rather dark) bouquet of motifs from my “Neo Dark Art” series, which I was allowed to show at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen. This section has been an important part of my project since the very beginning, as there is a lot to discover in the dark – if you want to. I love the aesthetics inherent in the black scene. The exhibition at WGT was a milestone that got a lot of things rolling – including events at the KitKatKlub and in Los Angeles. Sooner or later I will definitely be back there again.

Take a look for yourself at the wondrous world of Vince Voltage:

Our current issue includes the Orkus! calendar 2025, which also features a photograph by Vince Voltage:

Vince Voltage’s book “Raw Love” is still available in small quantities:

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Listen to “Fuck Art – Let’s Fuck” on Spotify: