Bernd Wondollek Vita was born and raised in Hamburg, Germnay.

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He startet his career in photography right after graduating from highschool.



After two days as a trainee, he was hired as a photo assistant, mainly on stills and car shoots. In 1995 he went on to study visual- communications for electronic media at the University of Hannover.

Although having fought his way through the entrance examination, he was among the five chosen who were picked from

hundreds of candidates.



Bernd quit university after a year and went back to the front lines of photography.

He spent a few more years as a freelance photo assistant with numerous photographers, mostly on fashion and car photography,

gaining a reputation as being the man to hire for complicated car shoots.

In 1997 Bernd joined Markenfilm in Germany, as camera assistant and technician.

Over the 2 1/2 years Bernd spend at Markenfilm, he worked on almost 350 commercials with a good part of the who`s who

of the commercial industry.

Since 2000 Bernd enjoys a growing career as a director of photography.

He is regarded as Germanys top music video DOP, having completed almost 250 videos, winning numerous awards and

being nominated for an MTV music video award for rammsteins "keine lust", just one of the six videos he shot for the band....

Bernd`s first ever commercial, kaifu lodge shot with director Markus Walter, was featured on Shots 57.

Since then Bernd has won numerous prizes. 

Today, Bernd`s career focuses on cars and technical demanding setups, although his background includes beauty, storytelling,

food and high speed photography.

Bernd was a pioneer of digital highspeed cameras, in a time when they where still supplied by the Fraunhofer institute and

came with a guy wearing a lab smock.

Being trained in photography back in the days when photos had to be taken without any cgi or digital retouching involved,

made Bernd an expert in lighting, in camera tricks, and general troubleshooting. 

On the other hand, having studied cgi at university, combined with his 20 years of experience in the studio, made him a

sought after SFX DOP,  and resulted in his ongoing collaboration with various post facilities.

He's considered to be among the best and most experienced Russian arm operators in the business today.

Bernd has shot around the globe including South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Iceland and all over Europe.