“I LOVE BEING CREATIVE...”- Marie Barsch

Marie was born in Germany in 1986 and began her career more or less by accident in her late teens, picking up a friend’s camera and just starting to shoot. Since transitioning from a hobby to a professional career in 2013, Marie’s passion for photography has brought her all over the world to well-known fashion and beauty locations such as Los Angeles, Dubai, Miami, Cape Town, and Mumbai. Marie’s distinct style is defined by clean, effortless beauty aesthetics combined with exotic places depicting stunning bodies and features. Marie has collaborated with a wide range of multinational clients, including MAC Cosmetics, Nikon, Eucerin, Nescafe, ProFoto, and many more.

- SANCHIT MISHRA

While things have changed considerably in the industry, did you face much resistance being a female photographer when you started out since the industry is still largely considered to be male-dominated?

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people who don’t take me or female photographers in general serious in this industry. It happened a lot to me in India or Asia in general. People/Male clients would rather talk to my male partner on set than to me even though I was standing right in front of them. I always laughed it off somehow and blamed it on the culture, but I hope with more and more female photographers in the industry things will change.

In India while more female photographers take up photography professionally every year, the ones that make it to the top are handful. What would your message be to the women photographers in India and Asia?

I think it might take a few more years until the industry will change and there’ll be more female photographers on top too. I feel like a lot of people/clients think that women can’t handle specific things or are weaker than men. We just have to prove them wrong and show them that we are capable of the same things that men can do or that we are even better than men.