Genius at work
I find it interesting to explore the boundaries between still and moving images, right now I´m in a crossroads betwen the two techniques. Concerning moving images, I like small changes in static pictures. I guess it´s the stills photographer in me seeking balance between the two medias. As an artist, I want my work to make people re-evaluate their positions, react and take a stand when they see my work - the worst thing that can happen in an exhibition for instance is to hear the audience mutter things like "oh that´s nice, nice color, cute" and so on, I´d rather prefer that they tear the images down in fury. What I mean with this is that it is imortant to me that my work has an impact on people, negative or positive.
Eine Kleine Disko
I prefer to exhibit my work outside the traditional "white cube" and this lead to that. One of the things I started was founding Eine Kleine Disko together with Artist Rasmus Hedlund in 2006 and we started to curate this project. Eine Kleine Disko now includes Artist Peter Rosvik as a curator.
Eine Kleine Disko, in short, can be described as a dynamic art project that welcomes performance, noise, video and intervention with related art forms to create flux in Eine Kleine Disko context. Eine Kleine Disko is a nomadic art project in the sense that it is not a permanent screening, disco or performance festival with preset programmes but a kind of cultural jamming from which the participants never return to the starting point. Eine Kleine Disko is a non-profit project and exists on the premises that are offered for taking Eine Kleine Disko events from one place to another. So far 6 have been held.
Photographer in development
As for photography I started out "Seriously" (whatever that now is..) some 6 years ago and was from the start drawn to photographing other people, I find it fascinating to portrait others, in a way I make self portraits out of others - or at least it feels that way sometimes. The last few years I have been more and more drawn to moving images and the more and more diffuse boundary between stills and moving images.
In photography I prefer hard lighting, sharp shadows, vivid colors and high contrast. I want my images to hit the audience in the face, this is something I picked up when I was assisting Swedish photographer Karolina Henke some years ago - I got impressed with her way of working and learned quite a few tricks in photography from her.
I am not so much for staged or styled photos any more, what I mean with this is that I find it more interesting to portrait people that are truly living their style, be it in everyday life or as a secret identity - few if any stylists or models can truly fake a genuine person as I see it.
Concerning non portrait photography I prefer to make a bit of abstract pictures of a dying post industrial world, abandoned factories, large open cemented spaces, parking lots, abandoned residences etc. Sometimes I combine these environments when doing staged photos with other persons in, I find that there is a certain electricity in the air in these places that is hard to describe.
As I have hinted before photography is now but one of my ways to express myself - video, installation, sound and events such as Eine Kleine Disko are becoming a more and more important part of my expression.
Solo Exhibition
I recently held a larger solo exhibition in Gävle, Sweden where I displayed all these different disciplines and much to my surprise I managed to communicate my view of life to many of the visitors through these different techniques and I realised that to be really free in expression one has to understand that each technique (photography, video, sound, sculpture, painting and so on) is nothing more than a tool and in the right hands they make a huge impact if combined.
When I picked up photography all those years ago I could never have imagined that it would have such a big influence on my life as it has been, now though it is not the main tool for me, but one of many.
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