My name is Ralph Milewski, and I am a passionate photographer from Germany. Born with
Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD), despite significant physical limitations, I have
found my creative voice. My photographic journey is marked by the fixed positioning of my
camera between my legs, just 27 inches above the ground.
Photography, for me, is not just a creative passion but a window to art and self-expression.
As an introverted individual with a strong curiosity for people and their stories, I find in
photography a unique way to simultaneously create intimacy and distance.
The camera, my tool of choice, becomes the medium that strengthens my self-confidence
and elevates my self-worth. Despite moments of frustration and grappling with my own
limits, photography motivates me to creatively transcend my physical constraints and
achieve extraordinary results.
My work not only provides insights into my world from an unconventional perspective but
also invites a reevaluation of existing perceptions. Photography, for me, is more than a
visual medium; it keeps my mind alert and inspires me to develop bold ideas, even if their
realization often relies on support.
Photography compels me out of my comfort zone, helps me overcome social anxieties, and
facilitates the forging of new connections. My view of the world through the lens is unique
and perhaps exactly what can enrich your photo project.
I invite you to consider my photography as a contribution to your project, not out of pity for
my disability, but as an enrichment through a distinctive perspective and the creative
process that I infuse into each image.
Rear Seat Diaries:
The “Rear Seat Diaries” are my long-term project – born out of coincidence, curiosity, and the realization that my side window is more than just a frame with glass: it is my window to the world.
The first images were taken in 2022 on the way to Spain – still with a phone and a selfie stick. The car was packed to the roof, water bottle, spare wheelchair – everything visible in the frame. Back then, I didn’t recognize the potential. Only a few months later did I start photographing my own surroundings this way. When reviewing and editing these images, I noticed that some of them showed the entire window frame. That was the moment I understood that the frame itself could become the subject – and that this was where the strength of the series lay.
Since then, the project has steadily evolved. I sit in my power wheelchair in the rear of my adapted VW Caddy, the camera supported on a small tripod. It points sideways out of the window, and the frame remains always the same: a fixed view through which the world outside passes by. What sounds like a simple technical setup is in fact a lively, sometimes rather wild process: the car shakes, the wheelchair isn’t fixed, the camera wobbles, and the autofocus struggles with rain, dust, and reflections. Everything that happens is captured in motion – nothing is smoothed out afterwards.
Over time, the series expanded to include a conceptual dimension. The frame stayed the same, but what happened inside it began to change. Scenes were deliberately composed, objects placed, moments staged. At the same time, I began creating images with longer exposure times, turning the movement of the outside world into lines, structures, and textures.
Today, the “Rear Seat Diaries” are a mixture of observation and artistic intervention, of everyday moments and carefully planned ideas. Sometimes a quick trip to the supermarket is enough, sometimes it takes weeks of preparation. The project has become an ongoing diary – not in words, but in windows. It shows the world as I see it: sometimes sober, sometimes poetic, sometimes surprising. And always through the same frame.
