Anselm is a German-American artist, creative director, and observer of people and their stories. The question that drives him is simple — and never fully answerable: What lies behind what we choose to show of ourselves?

His path led him first through artistic and journalistic training at the San Francisco Art Institute, the School of Visual Arts, and the International Center of Photography. Time in the studios of Christopher Makos and David LaChapelle, and as an archive assistant at Magnum Photos, sharpened his eye for what lies beneath a face. In his own photojournalistic work, he turned his lens toward people at the margins of society — with dignity and without distance.

Later, he founded DER DUFT, a niche perfume house that follows the same instinct: putting individual perfumers and their perspective at the center, not the brand.

With Portraits by Anselm, these threads come together. As host, Anselm conducts conversations that go deeper than the obvious. Each guest is not only heard, but seen: in the conversation, in the photograph, in the drawing they make of themselves.