Photographer / Weinstadt
Features, Portraits, Multimedia, Africa
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Life
Rainer Kwiotek, born and raised in the Rhineland, found his way to photography through detours. After training and working as an art blacksmith and then as an optician, he spent several years in Iceland and Namibia. Afterwards, he worked as a private detective, karate instructor, and taxi driver in Munich and later in Stuttgart.
For Zeitenspiegel, he was then able to contribute his diverse professional and international experience as a photojournalist and became a member of the agency after a short time. For many years, his pictures have been published in all major German magazines such as Stern, Spiegel and Focus, as well as in various foreign journals.
A focus of his work comprises reports for NGOs and social institutions. For over 20 years, he has been traveling to Ethiopia multiple times a year for the German aid organization „Menschen für Menschen“.
His clients also include companies and organizations such as Aktion Mensch, Bilfinger, BMW, Brot für die Welt, Daimler, Diakonie Stetten, Missio, Reinhausen, Sparkasse, and Talanx AG.
Current Awards:
2025: Constructive World Award
2025: European Publishing Award for „Magazine Story of the Year“
2024: Memento Media Award
2024: German Prize for Political Photography and Caricature, in the category „Best Photo Series“
Projects
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Frank Brunner, Rainer Kwiotek, ReportageHunt for Mannheim's loud sons
Photographer Rainer Kwiotek and author Frank Brunner
Published in „Stern,“ September 21, 2017The noise is the point: Nowhere are there as many „posers” as here – young men fighting for attention with souped-up cars. On the road with a special police squad.
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Rainer Kwiotek, ReportageCloud gazing and drill bit
Photographer Rainer Kwiotek, Felix Huby
Published in „Landluft“ No. 5/2017The photographer dreamed himself with his camera along the banks of the Rems. His fascinating pictures inspired the writer Felix Huby, who otherwise shocks us with crime novels, to write a text about the people who lived and live there.
Whether in the vibrant Oberland or the pietistic Unterland – they all had to earn paradise the hard way. -
Rainer Kwiotek, ReportageCuddling and fighting
Clara Entenmann, Photos: Rainer Kwiotek
Published in „Landluft“ No. 5/2017For a year now, student Clara Entenmann has been looking after refugee children in a collective accommodation center in Weinstadt. The 18-year-old recorded her experiences – both good and painful – in a diary.