Karl Otto
I’m Karl Otto.
Photographer; Artist; Image Maker.
Creating dynamic imagery for individuals, families, and creative professionals in greater Metro Detroit and the Arborland areas.
I received a B.S. in electronic media: film studies and journalism from Eastern Michigan University. 2012 brought with it the end of the Michigan Film Initiative, and an entire film industry vanished from this state overnight. I decided to combine my passions for photography and entertainment journalism, in an attempt to support my young family without having to leave our home.
I went to work for Apple Inc. to foster a deeper understanding for creative computing systems, nurture my technical prowess, and to begin to build my brand; The Ottolab. Once I felt confident with my understanding of the technical aspects of my new career path, I began to take on new clients and left the retail industry.
Over the next four years I began honing my photographic voice by taking on a diverse collection of clients, shooting private and public events, professional portraits, real estate, and product photography. In 2017 I found a fortuitous partnership in the Detroit Bureau of Sound and New Music Detroit that granted me access to an assortment of concerts and festivals, which offered me the opportunity to create a unique visual style for their brand.
During the pandemic, I found work in one of the few industries that ramped up business while most others slowed; the cannabis industry. I spent 2020 and 2021 producing commercial images for the some of the largest cannabis companies in America based in Michigan. Many of the images I produced while working for Qonkur Media Group would go on to be published as part of on national campaigns in both digital and print mediums. This work strengthened my comfortability producing studio and location-based commercial images as well as advanced macro plant photography.
My endeavor is to create dynamic images for my clients. Cinematically styled visual story telling is at the core of my creative ethos, and the perfect image to me would be one that can extol the virtues of a subject while simultaneously skewing its conventional perception.
Ultimately, it’s about creating memorable images.
