Artist Spotlight: Christian Ringer

If you've ever completed a jigsaw and felt the pull to visit the place pictured on the box, Christian Ringer's puzzles are for you. He's a landscape photographer rather than a painter, and it shows: his images capture real, specific corners of the world — a lighthouse battered by waves, a village beneath a blazing night sky — with the sharp detail only a camera lens can deliver.

A photographer's eye for landscape

Christian Ringer, born in 1976 in Germany, is a passionate landscape photographer who loves travelling to the wonderful places of this earth, with photographs published in numerous magazines and journals. He has won several prestigious photography awards, both nationally and internationally, such as the Trierenberg Super Circuit or the SONY World Photography Award, and is an active member of the German photography association, DVF. That background as an award-winning travel photographer rather than an illustrator is exactly what sets his puzzles apart on the shelf.

Because his images are photographs, not paintings, the recurring theme across his work is a fascination with dramatic natural settings and the man-made structures that sit within them — lighthouses on wild coastlines, historic townscapes, and skies full of stars. His St. Mathieu puzzle, for instance, features a cliff-side lighthouse and the crashing waves below , captured with the kind of clarity that only comes from patient, well-composed photography.

What makes his puzzles enjoyable to build

Photographic puzzles ask something different of you than illustrated ones. There's no stylised brushwork to guide your eye, so you're working with genuine light, shadow, and texture — sea spray on rock, the gradient of a night sky, the weathered stonework of old buildings. That makes Ringer's puzzles a satisfying choice for puzzlers who enjoy a bit of real-world challenge, where colours shift subtly rather than in bold flat blocks.

Both of the puzzles we carry are produced by Schmidt, a German brand known for consistently excellent piece quality, so the building experience itself is as reliable as the imagery is striking. If you like your puzzles to double as a bit of armchair travel — a coastal storm one week, a starlit village the next — his range has a nice spread of atmosphere without straying from that core photographic realism.

Puzzles worth building

Here are two of our best-selling Christian Ringer puzzles, both 1000-piece Schmidt editions.

St. Mathieu

This one is all drama: a cliff-side lighthouse standing firm against crashing waves below . It's a lovely pick if you enjoy coastal and maritime scenes, and the contrast between white lighthouse, dark cliff and churning sea gives you plenty of visual anchor points to work from as you build.

St. Mathieu by Christian Ringer – 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Schmidt)

Schmidt

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Lockstein Milky Way

A real change of pace and mood — this puzzle trades crashing waves for a still, starlit village scene beneath the Milky Way. It's tagged under buildings, landmarks and churches, so expect atmospheric architecture set against a deep night sky, the kind of image that rewards patience with the darker, subtler sections of sky.

Lockstein Milky Way by Christian Ringer – 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Schmidt)

Schmidt

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Browse the full collection

We carry four Christian Ringer puzzles in total, and each one leans on that same photographer's instinct for a striking, well-composed scene. If dramatic coastlines and starlit villages have caught your eye, it's worth seeing the rest of what he's captured. Browse all Christian Ringer puzzles to see the complete range — and remember, UK delivery is a flat £3.97 per order, however many puzzles you add to your basket.