Life on the edge
ULLA Lohmann is passionate, inquisitive, adventurous and driven. Not only is she an amazing storyteller through her imagery she also has a great knowledge of her subjects, and says, ‘I’m curious about the world, about people, and I want to push the borders of what we think is possible.’
She has been to places and taken images that many of us can only imagine including abseiling 600m into an active volcano to record its features and surroundings. Ulla is the first woman to ever do this. When asked how it felt, Ulla replied, ‘It is like you are descending into hell. It is bubbling, it is boiling, the gases get up your nose and your eyes have tears in as well. It’s really hot and you can’t breathe very well because you have your gas mask on and the Earth is trembling and shaking. But I had been waiting for this moment for so long so it was like heaven. It’s this kind of ambivalent thing – nature is so big, and we as humans are so small. This volcano can destroy lives in a second but it also gives life.’ Ulla describes a German saying, Leidenschaft, which means passion but translates as creation through suffering which sums up her journey to get to that moment perfectly.
Of course Ulla didn’t achieve her ambition on the first attempt. She had to build up her skills (she
