From Photo Assistant to Entrepreneur – What I Learned in 17 Years
By Marius Rieg · · 2 min read
Summary: The path from craft to leadership is rarely a straight line. Three lessons from 17 years - craft builds judgment, change should begin before the crisis hits, and you build companies around people, not services.
In 2009 I stood in a photo studio in Pforzheim for the first time, as an intern. Today I run that studio as managing partner and have co-founded a second company, Luftschloss. In between lie 17 years, an abandoned degree, thousands of catalog images, and a few insights I wish I'd had earlier.
Detours aren't wasted time
My résumé isn't a straight line: civilian service and care work, studying civil engineering at KIT, then the switch into photography. For a long time I saw these stations as detours. Today I know better: care work taught me to work with people in difficult situations. My studies taught me structured thinking. I need both, every day, as an entrepreneur.
Craft builds judgment
I went through every stage of image production myself – assistant, trainee, advertising photographer, project lead. It was slow, but it built a foundation that can't be shortcut: I can judge my teams' work because I've done it myself. Whoever leads without knowing the craft has to believe. Whoever knows it can decide.
Change should begin before the crisis hits
The most important entrepreneurial step at Gieske Studios was moving into CGI and interactive product presentation – at a time when classic catalog photography was still doing well. That's exactly why it was the right moment. Whoever waits until the old business model starts crumbling negotiates from weakness. Whoever invests early can learn without pressure.
The same logic is behind Luftschloss: artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the creative industry. You can wait for that – or build an agency that treats this change as core from day one.
You build companies around people
The service a studio or agency provides is interchangeable; the team is not. So the most important job of an entrepreneur isn't sales or strategy, but creating an environment where good people want to do excellent work. Everything else follows from that.
Conclusion
If I had to compress my path into one sentence: take what is seriously – and still build what isn't yet. That's exactly what the name Luftschloss (castle in the air) stands for.