RAINER ELSTERMANN (Berlin, 1965).Old Masters Series "HANS MEMLING BILDNIS DER MARIA BARONCELLI (MARIA PORTINARI)" 2005.Digital colour photography, lambda print. Copy 4/7.Signed and numbered on the back.Size: 120 x 97 cmThe Old Masters series approaches his photographs as if they were paintings, recreating classic paintings, but replacing the original models with children, achieving a strange and almost disturbing sensation. Rainer Elstermann made his first self-portraits when he was 17 years old. In 1983, at the age of 18, he started working with Teufelsberg Produktion, an avant-garde and experimental super-8 film production company. A strong impulse came from the famous fashion photographer Paolo Roversi who photographed him for Vogue Italia in 1985. After seeing his portfolio he told Rainer that he should be a fashion photographer in Paris. Instead, Elstermann moved to London in 1988, where he stayed until 1992, doing small art projects and exploring photography, with his first assignments coming in. In 2000 he returned to Berlin and set up his studio as an advertising photographer. By 2006 his projects were moving again towards art photography and since 2009 he has been concentrating exclusively on this type of photography. In 2006 he met Andreas Stamm and they have been working together ever since.