Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

When I arrived at the residency in Dale in July 2014, I was immediately amazed and shocked about the beauty of Norway. Shocked, because I knew it would be very difficult to find the motives I am usually looking for, since it is just too beautiful. For sure, I could not just photograph a red house on a Fjord. I told myself to keep calm though and give it some time, since it was the first time in my life being able to work two months exclusively on one project. Plus, it was the first time I had a studio. I am adding a photograph of my studio, to show how nice my working conditions were. I am a very slow photographer. I work with a 4x5 inch large format camera on film. I am very strict in regards to my photography and choose my images very carefully. I do not take many photos, and with the ones I take I really know what I want to do. My work process always starts with a research on site. After documenting my first impressions and ideas with digital photographs/polaroids and notes I then decide for the motives and topics that are of most interest to me. During that process, I develop a story. In Norway I took a lot of these notes to collect ideas. More than ever before, since it took time to understand the visual possibilities. Usually I don't show these digital notes, but I realised, I want to change this. They are important for my work and they influence my final edit to a great extend. Also I like it a lot, when artists explain how they work. So in this blog, I am showing my notes for the first time. I am presenting them exactly the way I used them in Norway. I put two photos on one A4 sheet. Originally I put two in order to save ink when I print them, but then I liked it and also did it to already get a feeling for pairs and matching topics. Some of the notes that I liked and I wanted to reshoot with the 4x5inch camera were impossible to repeat for different reasons: Sometimes, nature already had changed. When I came back to the location, certain flowers were out of bloom, certain currents did not hit the same rocks anymore or heavy rain had stopped. On the other hand, life just goes on: On one of the houses I wanted to photograph there was a balcony added that totally spoiled my photo. (In case you wonder: There were three weeks between my note and my arrival with the large format camera.) This is how slow of a photographer I am. Sometimes grass was cut, sometimes a car left and never came back, sometimes people did not switch on the light in their hallway anymore. When I am at a place I find out a lot of details of the people that are living there. I know who goes to bed late, I know who had a visitor, I know who always parks differently etc. It might seem a littlebit spooky, but I guess it is the duty of a artist to observe. I actually feel a lot like a writer, when I am working. I keep myself entertained by inventing stories in my head, which visitor might have been there or why this person sleeps so late. The way I work fits my personality. I am very curious and even though there are usually no humans on my photographs I am a humanist. I enjoy the physical experience of being outside, feeling the wind and the rain. I got soaked many times by heavy rain and I sweated a lot, since it was actually a really hot summer for Norway. Sometimes, I do have company during my photo sessions. In Norway I had friends visiting that came with me. Additionally the other artists in residence got into making these spontanious roadtrips together. I am pleased when I have company too, because you share the adventure, you can enjoy the food and tea you bring more and you can be more courageous especially at night. Talking about night: When I was in Norway, there was no real darkness due to the summertime. It was very interesting to experience, but tough for me since I tend to find many of my motives at night. But necessity is the mother of invention: I found an abandoned tunnel and I worked with the strong sunlight and underexposures, so there actually are nights shots or night looking shots in the series. There are three real night photographs in the Dale series. I took all of them in the very last night, when there was finally some real darkness for a few hours.   The Dale Project was kindly supported by the Nordic Artists Center Dale, Norway