Uli Staiger was born in Tailfingen, Germany in 1966. In 1987 he decided to make his apprenticeship as a professional photographer in a studio for portrait and advertising photography. After having successfully finished his three year apprenticeship, Uli spent three month in Barcelona and the north east of Spain in order to learn spanish and to improve his style as a black and white landscape photographer.

In 1991 he went to New York and New Jersey, where he started working as a freelance assistant for numerous photographers. After six months he was hired by advertising photographer Neil Molinaro in Clark, New Jersey. Molinaro had developed an extraordinary style of lighting that was unique at the time. Uli was greatly influenced by Molinaro and the time spent in New Jersey helped him find his own style and creative direction.

Back in Germany Uli moved to Berlin and started working as a studio photographer. He took two long trips to Chile and Argentina, where he continued his landscape work, most of it in black and white. In 1996 he decided to study studio photography at the Fachschule für Fototechnik in Potsdam near Berlin. This is where he learned digital photography and digital retouching as well as composing processes. That changed his life completely. He began to combine the two elements - landscape and studio still-life to create his unique style, using unexpected and strong perspectives to build dramatic scenes of sugar cubes crashing into teacups or kitchen tools flying around like dangerous insects.

Since 1998, when he founded his Berlin based studio die licht gestalten (shaping with light), he works not only on assignments but also on personal and charity projects. His work won many national and international competitions and has been shown in numerous magazines in Europe and the USA.