Jo Francis van den Berg is a passionate photographer with many years of international experience in the advertising industry, working for international brands such as Mont Blanc, Steinway, Chanel, Guerlain, La Prairie, Joop and Cartier, to name a few.

After studies at the NARAFI Photo and Film School in Brussels from 1971 to 1973, Jo worked with renowned photographers in London and Amsterdam as well as Reinhart Wolf in Hamburg, before becoming self-employed with his own studio in Hamburg between 1978 and 2018. He now lives in Mallorca.


Two of his most passionate projects include the visualisation of the 'Scent of Light' in 2011 and 'Divine Fragrance', based on Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'.

Jo has shot magazine covers for the likes of Stern and GEO as well as culinary reports for Essen & Trinken Magazine. He runs a publishing company focusing on photography, art, design, advertising and lifestyle and has received numerous awards. Part of his artistic work has also been recorded by the Museum for Art and Crafts in Hamburg.

Jo owns a large archive of around 1,500 photos which can be purchased on request.

711rent is a leading professional equipment rental company with eight branches throughout Europe: Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Mallorca.

711rent Mallorca is located around 15 minutes from both the airport and the city centre. The company can deliver equipment across the entire island as well as to Ibiza and Menorca, while 711rent Barcelona serves mainland Spain.

All necessary equipment for photo and film productions including LED, continuous lights, cameras, strobe systems and a wide range of Briese Umbrellas for flash, tungsten and HMI daylight are in stock.

711rent carries well maintained gear from all major brands, with recent additions including the Sony FS7 mark II, the Blackmagic Webpresenter, the Kinoflo T44 system, Arri M8, Phase one IQ 4 System with 150 MP, Laowa 24mm/14 cine Macrolens (EF-mount) and Sony Alpha 7 R IV 61MP camera.

711rent’s individual locations and solid network across Spain and throughout Europe make it easy to get any type of support, no matter where a client picks up equipment.

Get in touch with your local shop to organise your next shoot!

Jan Steinhilber recently shot these catalogue and print visuals for Volkswagen on location in Germany.

This is the first appearance of the Multivan and Transporter 6.1.

The commissioning agency for this project was Grabarz und Partner with CD Katarina Wiggert and AD Sertan Oyman.

Hamburg and Stuttgart-based photographer Thomas Motta has been busy shooting over the last few months.

Featured in this Spotlight is a mixture of his recent shoots for Audi, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Smart, Skoda and KIA, plus some drone shots from personal projects and a shoot for Condor.

Thomas is represented by Upfront.

Christoph Siegert has been voted one of the '200 Best Advertising Photographers in the World' in 2020. As in 2013 and 2019, the international jury at Lürzer's Archive selected him among the leading advertising photographers.

His series 'Natürlich Hamburg!' - a large-scale nature conservation project commissioned by the Authority for Environment and Energy (Behörde für Umwelt und Energie) - gained him the recognition once again. His combination of landscape photography and people photography convinced the jury.

Christoph has photographed various projects in the field of medical technology for international group Philips. Despite the technical theme, most of the motifs for the 'Trilogy Evo' ventilator focus on people's emotional relationships.

Marco Alecci is a make-up artist and hair stylist with 11 years of experience working for fashion, advertising, editorials and catwalk events. He started his career as a hair-dresser and is has been working successfully as a freelancer for the past four years.

Marco's work has been published in leading fashion magazines such as Vogue Italia online, Vogue Brazil, and many others. He worked on Pat McGrath's team for Paris Fashion Week, handling shows for Miu Miu, Valentino and Louis Vuitton.

Marco is based in Germany but travels throughout the world to locations including Milan, Paris, London, New York and Miami. He has worked with a range of different celebrities including Caro Daur, Tess Holiday, Hayley Hasselhoff and Emilia Schüle.

Marco speaks Italian, English, and German fluently. Honesty and passion are the distinctive elements of his approach, and he  continually works on his professional development to improve his knowledge about new techniques in the cosmetic industry.

As an artist he is represented by Ballsaal in Hamburg.

"If you’re looking to always rent the newest and best photo and video equipment, then Calumet is the place to be. We always update the rental assortment to ensure you get the best equipment for your production.

We recently added the new X-T3 from Fujifilm with a lot of new lenses. And from Canon, we now offer the innovative EOS R, together with some RF lenses for best performance.

Since June, we have also been providing our rental service in Frankfurt am Main. With the seventh Calumet store, clients have optimal coverage across Germany. All seven shops in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Essen, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt am Main have professional rental stations."

Michael Heinsen specialises in credible, atmospheric, emotional and high-quality lifestyle and people photography. Parallel video productions are also part of his work.

His reliance on Mallorca and the great weather seduces productions at sea, in the water and in the sun.

He is represented by Düsseldorf-based Rockefeller und Göbels.

Hamburg-based ADRET - Advertising Retouching is a high-end digital retouching studio focused on still life, luxury, jewellery, beauty and fashion.

Unique images demand perfection and control. With special photography techniques and retouching experience, the highly skilled retouchers at ADRET pursue creative solutions with patience and concentration. With a full menu of services and efficient time management, the ADRET team is prepared to accomplish all imaging needs by deploying its range of skills to achieve outstanding results.

The experienced team takes raw materials and polishes them to form a perfect diamond, setting the mood and correcting lighting and colours along the way. ADRET creates outstanding visual effects and generates images of the highest quality.

ADRET's goal is to support clients with their projects. Visit the website for more information.

By 2020, more than a third of all Germans will be over 50. Best Agers will become the key target audience in advertising. elbmodels really understands this development, so for 12 years the age range of its models starts where other agencies draw the line.

Located in Hamburg and Munich, elbmodels connects experienced models from Germany and abroad with agencies, editorial offices and photographers for movie and photo productions. Its models embody the lifestyle of their generation, with a striking appearance and lots of experience.

"We think youth is overrated.“