Axel Schmidt was born in Northern Germany. From 2006-2013, he worked as a staff photographer for the ddp news agency (which later became dapd) in Berlin. During this time, he traveled extensively across more than 70 countries to cover a broad range of topics such as the war in Afghanistan, the revolution in Egypt, the Olympic Games in Beijing and London and the Syrian refugee crisis.

His work has appeared regularly in the German and international press, including Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, TIME Magazine, The New York Times and Le Monde.

Since 2009, Axel has been responsible for training volunteers at dapd and has lectured on photography at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, the University of Berlin, and the Berlin School of Journalism.

After the closure of the dapd news agency in 2013, he and five other former dapd photographers founded the CommonLens photo collective.

From 2016 to 2021, Axel worked as a stringer for The Associated Press and Reuters. Since then, he has focused on personal projects supported by commercial assignments.

Contact
Axel Schmidt
Wilhelmine-Gemberg-Weg 10
10179 Berlin/Germany
info |a| axelschmidt.info
+49 30 69 2040 791

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