Roland Steiner started his early life and schooling in Lagos, Nigeria. Growing up bilingual (English/German), his interest in other languages developed early on. He decided to study civil engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zürich) first, followed by a year of intensive language studies in Tours, France. He then embarked on his architectural studies, interrupted by a compulsory one-year internship, as an airport planner at Swissair.

Shaped by his constant commuting between Switzerland and Nigeria, his enthusiasm for aviation, his flawless French and the straightforward Spanish he learned along the way, he became a versed voyager. He graduated with a degree in architecture from the ETH Zürich.

Two weeks later he began as a volunteer with an inspiring Swiss fashion photographer. After a year, he was hired by an international advertising agency as a photo assistant for their studio, where he got acquainted with just about every aspect of commercial photography. Another year later he started out on his own. He portrayed Swiss CEO’s for the cover of “Bilanz”, the Swiss financial magazine. Several subsequently assigned him to shoot their company’s annual report. In parallel he specialised in people photography, his interest was significantly sparked by his part-time training in classical mime. Quite early he received piano lessons, later at the church organ, became as familiar with Bach as with rock music, which he played in a band. In addition he worked as a language teacher and interpreter for the Berlitz School. The combined capabilities made it easy for him to direct performers, in particular on international sets.

Armed with a thorough knowledge of film and having studied the tricks of some outstanding cinematographers over and over again, he developed his own lighting technique. This became his first trade mark. The second: using traditional mime techniques, he casts models and actors himself. This allows him to accurately assess their abilities. The third is his capacity to create concepts. For this reason, he is usually consulted by his clients at an early stage. Thus, most of the works displayed here bear his personal signature.