Klaus Polzer

When freeskiing arrived in Europe in the mid 1990s, Klaus Polzer was one of the few skiers from the German Alps to succeed in big-mountain competitions. This landed him in front of the lens of Austrian photographer Peter Mathis, and the two pioneered freeride skiing in the Eastern Alps and brought it to magazines all around the world.

With a university degree in physics, Klaus thought about entering a “normal” career when he turned 30 in 2000. But that same year he was offered the title of editor in chief of an upstart German freeskiing magazine called Skiing: The Next Level. The Munich native took the job and successfully built the magazine over the next eight years. It was during this time that he found an interest in photography. “Editing photos for the magazine, I really learned a lot about photography,” Polzer explains, “and I didn’t really want to ski for photos any more… I didn’t want to run photos of myself. So I decided to start shooting with my old SLR. It was helpful for the magazine, particularly at events.”

Within a year, Klaus was receiving queries from commercial clients interested in his work, but he chose to focus his efforts on the magazine. In 2007, however, the publishing house he worked for was sold and the atmosphere changed. With renewed confidence in his photography due to success at the 2008 Red Bull Tribal Quest photo contest in Switzerland, he left Skiing TNL in February 2009 to make a run as a professional photographer.

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