Every now and then a well-meaning picture editor remembers that I spent 20 years photographing dolls for the German doll manufacturer “Annette Himstedt”. Since Annette closed down her company my expertise in handling small things lies sadly dormant for most of the time. That’s why I was delighted when Men’s Health called me to photograph their Woman-Survival-Guide.
The magazine cunningly identified all four female riders of the apocalypse -
girlfriend, colleague, mother and best friend – and gave advice on how to survive their devilishness.
My job was to translate typical troubles with the other sex into easily recognizable visuals, for those poor downtrodden male magazine readers.

To get the right atmosphere, I decided to use real sets and limit the amount of post production to an absolute minimum. Thanks to set builder Nils Emde for creating these modern day pillories. Here you see the lead pictures of the series: