About me

My name is Mario Jerome Oczko. In English “Oczko” means small eyes. And even if I’m not an educated photographer but an autodidact, photography is more than just a hobby for me. I was born in Cologne and had lived for many years in Spain and Brazil. At the beginning of my stay abroad I had difficulties with the language. Therefore, I learnt to use my eyes intensively for communication. Now I live in Cologne again but have never stopped to use my eyes in this way because not everything can be put into words.

In 2014 my grandpa handed me a last gift before his death: a reflex camera. Since then I aim to capture the moments as they are with this camera and not to change them such as with Photoshop. During the last years I took my camera and have traveled a lot through Asia and South America where I met many people and their life stories. Some beautiful and unforgettable impressions during my journeys are held on this page. As you can see I love to take pictures of people – especially children and old people – because they are influenced by life and inspire myself.

The world looks different through the lens of a camera. For the future, I wish to support social projects with my photography and hope to enable people to see the world differently through my pictures.

"Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like."