Marcel Mettelsiefen

Born 1978 in Munich/Germany.

Marcel Mettelsiefen, who grew up in Spain and Germany, took up photography after his graduation. Through his collaboration with the 1998 founded journal zenith – Zeitschrift für den Orient he came to the field of photojournalism.

In 2000 he travelled for several months to Israel and Palestine and worked as a photographer for the news agency AP. After his return, the collaboration with news agency dpa began, for which he reported out of conflict areas such as Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003) and Haiti (2004). Aside from his work as a photographer, he took up medical studies at Berliner Charité, Germany in 2004. At the end of 2008 he interrupted his studies to realize a 13 month long photographic project in Afghanistan. Upon his return, he worked closely with Christoph Reuter, correspondent of stern in Kabul/Afghanistan.

Together with Christoph Reuter he published the book Kunduz, 04. September 2009 in 2009. It compiles a search for evidence, a work of research of the air strikes in the south of the city Kunduz/Afghanistan, and a series of portraits of the surviving dependents of the 92 civilians who lost their lives. This project was nominated for the Henri Nannen Preis in 2010 and accompanied by an exhibition in Potsdam/Germany (2010), Hamburg/Germany (2010), and Munich. The exhibition was visited by the former Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who asked for support in the intermediation of compensation of the bereaved families. At the end of August 2010 every family received 5.000€ compensation. A part of the project is displayed at the international traveling exhibition Freedom to Create.

In early 2011 Marcel Mettelsiefen has photographed for the journals stern, Der Spiegel, and Geo in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. He began filming in December of 2011. Altogether he travelled 14 times to revolutionary Syria to report undercover. During this time, Heimlich in Homs – Im Herzen des Syrischen Aufstandes for ARD, which was awarded with the Axel Springer Preis; Homs – A City under Siege, a 30 minute documentary for CNN, which was awarded with the Edward R. Murrow Award; and many other productions with ZDF, ARD, canal+, channel 14, and Al Jazeera could be realized.

Together with Yasemin Ergin he obtained the Gabriel-Grüner-Stipendium of Zeitenspiegel Reportagen that includes a two-month residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude.