Bavaria’s original inhabitants – small, wild and forgotten

They were there long before we arrived. They live in dead wood, in the hiding places of the night, in the secret places of moors and meadows. Sand beetles, dormice, moor frogs, midwife toads and stag beetles – small, often overlooked creatures that have been part of our local nature for thousands of years.

This photo project is a journey to Bavaria’s true original inhabitants. I accompany them through spring and summer, into damp forests and sun-drenched sandy areas, into tree hollows and under stones. I document their everyday lives – how the stag beetle emerges from the earth for the last time, how the moor frog blues in its mating song, how tiny dormice climb through the tangles of branches, silent and yet alert.

They are fragile living environments that we rarely notice – and often destroy unintentionally. Many of these species are now endangered or on the Red List.

With this project, I want to tell their stories. Stories of adaptation, survival and beauty in miniature. “UrEinwohner” is my photographic portrait of the species that make our homeland what it is – wild, alive and full of wonder.