Uli Burtin

Ulrich Paul Ferdinand Burtin, known as Uli Burtin, was born in 1940 in Austria and spent his childhood in his homeland and post-war Germany.

At the age of 16, he began learning still photography at an advertising photography studio in Frankfurt. Between 1959 and 1962, he completed his training at the Higher Film School in West Berlin, and, in parallel, worked as a camera assistant in Berlin's UFA film industry. At the same time, he studied physics and chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin, however, without completing the course.

Between 1962 and 1965 he initially worked as a camera operator at the Suedwestfunk studios in Baden-Baden, Germany. In 1969 he signed his first work as a photographer in a feature film, in “Die Fragestunde”, directed by Tom Toelle. He then performed “Schrott”, by Eberhard Itzenplitz, and “Bambule”, by Ulrike Meinhof and Eberhard Itzenplitz, all in black and white. During this period he also photographed several political documentaries in countries such as China, Cuba, Egypt, Israel and, mainly, in Africa, where in 1968 he made four documentaries during an expedition and had the opportunity to cross the continent in a Kombi.

In 1971, Burtin was hired by the German government as a technical advisor for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation to plan and set up the technical part of TV Educativa in Rio de Janeiro, currently TV Brasil. Before returning to Germany in 1974, he also administered courses and prepared handouts on lighting at TV Globo in Ri…