Photo by Matthias Koslik

Berlin is still a city of unusual collaborations: a galerist works with a restauranteur to dream up a project like the Jewish Girls School or a baker might work with a musician to organize a bread and jazz Sunday. The farmer Rolf Henke, whose farm Gut Temmen is located within one of Germany’s largest stretches of protected wilderness about an hour north of Berlin, is also drawn to collaborating with local artists.

We met Rolf at the Grill Royal, a glamorous steak restaurant in Mitte. It wasn’t really his scene. But the quiet man, more a poet than a farmer, agrees to sell his organic beef to Grill Royal’s owners because they appreciate the taste of “terroir” in Henke’s grass fed, free range meat. The owners, of course, are also sourcing Henke’s meat for their new restaurant in the Jewish Girl’s School: the Pauly Saal.

Gisela ended up profiling Rolf for the Berlin-based blog Freunde von Freunden and kept in touch.

He recently informed her about a collaboration with the Berlin-based photographer Matthias Koslik, of Beavershot Productions on a series of images of his farm, Gut Temmen (scroll down to see a selection of them below).

Rolf Henke and Matthia Koslik

Matthias first found himself in the village of Temmen a few years back when he wanted to exchange Berlin’s grey streets for wilder landscapes. Hunting had become a passion for him; he liked to slip into the darkness of a forest alone in the middle of the night. It relaxed him and allowed him to forget how much he missed his son, whom he had to give up to his ex-wife in a recent divorce.

Matthias remembers the first time he met Rolf. It was by the shores of one of the lakes on Henke’s farmland. They eventually struck up a conversation which led to Matthias taking a series of haunting pictures of both Henke and his land. They haven’t been exhibited yet but Matthias agreed to allow us to feature several images. They remind us that spring is not too far away and that in less than an hour, we can be surrounded by birch forests and silver lakes and happy cows.

Below, check out a selection of Matthias’ photos of the property: