Daniel Josefsohn

When I was hired in 2009 to be Vanity Fair Germany’s weekly art columnist, the ed-in-chief brought Daniel Josefsohn on board to be the photographer. Daniel and I were meant to travel the world together as the column I was writing (called Schneeball/Snowball) required that I follow the whims of the artists I would visit, a chain gang of friends, so to speak, suggesting friends.

The Snowball column would have been exhausting and exciting, especially as I’d have Daniel always by my side with his wicked sense of humor. To get the ball rolling, we were booked to visit Josephine Meckseper in Zurich. One day before our trip, the snowball would become a quickly melting snowflake: Si Newhouse unexpectedly waltzed into the Berlin offices of Vanity Fair and shut the entire operation down.

Eight years later, after having completed my first stylist job for Escada, I’d only just begun to dream of the chance of working with great photographers like Daniel again. And being a stylist is a lot like being a writer, only better: out from behind her desk and interacting with the real world. Stories happen ad lib based on the characters (models and photographers) you are working with on that day. Creating a story with Daniel would have been absolutely Dada, in the best sense of the word.

I knew him primarily as a neighbor. Bumping into him at the grocery store, often with his dog Jesus and with the lady with a pug named Bonbon, he always had a story to tell. He was a superhero, a galactic star fighter, too, and I will miss him.