Brisbane to Berlin: Shooting Across Hemispheres for the Humboldt Foundation

Some briefs land and you just know it's going to be a good one.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of serving as Director of Photography on a profile film for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, one of Germany's most respected scientific institutions. The Brisbane shoot was produced by 18 Degrees Films in collaboration with German production company Lumalenscape, who covered the European side of what became a genuinely transatlantic production.

Our subject was Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik, a Brisbane-based chemist and 2025 recipient of the Humboldt Professorship, Germany's highest-value international research prize. His work in light-controlled materials has rewritten assumptions that stood in photochemistry for 200 years. Filming scientists always presents an interesting challenge: making the invisible visible, and finding the human story inside the technical one. Christopher made that easy.

Collaborating remotely with Lumalenscape required a shared visual language from the outset, aligning on look, tone and approach before a single frame was shot. That kind of cross-cultural creative conversation is something I genuinely enjoy, and the result speaks for itself.

Watch here: Unlocking nature's secrets