BERLIN — On a wall in Julius von Bismarck’s studio hangs a large black-and-white photograph of him on a wind-tossed beach in Rio de Janeiro, the long lash of a whip extending from his right arm as waves froth around him.

The work has proved to be the most popular from his “Punishment I” series of photographs and films, which show the 30-year-old artist, whip in hand, pitted against the raw forces of nature in various locations around the globe, like a modern Xerxes.

Leaning back in his chair in the Berlin studio he shares with two colleagues, running his hands down the length of his thick, dark beard, Mr. von Bismarck reflected on the difficulties that surrounded the making of the image: terrible weather, the wrong camera, a friend with little experience as a photographer. But he wanted to capture the energy of the waves, lashing back against the snap of his whip, challenging the concept of the sea as a source of tranquillity....