Sea, Sun and Soil: Dennis Eichmann’s Crete in Analogue

Eichmann, who studied Fine Arts and Fashion Design in Berlin, Kiel, and Vienna, is now based in Berlin, working as a freelance photographer and artist. His photographic practice revolves around documenting a human-made world without people in the frame. By isolating everyday objects, he evokes feelings of solitude, and a certain quiet melancholy. Sunlight is an essential element in his work – not only as a tool of illumination but as a presence in itself, infusing his images with a sense of warmth and a lingering mood.

This warmth is palpable in his ‘Sea, Sun and Soil’ series. It takes place on Crete; a land of tension and balance, of layered pasts and deep presence. Here, the Aegean heaves against limestone cliffs, olive trees twist through the dust, and the ruins of Minoan civilisation sit just beyond the reach of sunbathers. In high summer, the island is ablaze with movement. Fishermen cast lines at dawn, tourists spill from cruise ships, waves fold themselves into the same familiar shapes. Eichmann’s work does not attempt to document this frenzy; instead, it pulls the camera back, allowing vignettes of stillness to emerge.

The images in ‘Sea, Sun and Soil’ are deliberately sequenced, each frame guiding the eye to the next with an unspoken rhythm. The sun glances off the crest of a wave mirrors the smooth glaze of a ceramic bowl; a weathered fishing net takes on the same tangled geometry as a Minoan amphora. This is not nostalgia, nor is it artifice – it is observation, deep and unhurried, capturing the way materials and landscapes quietly echo each other.

Eichmann understands that photography is not merely about what is seen, but how it is seen. In an era of instant imagery and hyper-saturated travel feeds, Sea, Sun and Soil is an exercise in slow focus. It resists the urgency of digital consumption, embracing instead the tactility of film, the patience required to shoot, develop, and assemble a body of work by hand. More than a documentation of place, this series is a reminder – to look again, to move with the landscape rather than through it, to find a little magic in the seemingly mundane. On Eichmann’s Crete, nothing is static, yet nothing is rushed. The sea rolls in. The sun hovers high above.