Combining art and commercial : Moveo portraits

Some people think that art and commercial jobs have to be two different things. Well I disagree and one of the benefits of having both a phototechnical education and a bacherlor in "Fine Arts", is to have the ability to combine both expressions.

The task was to portrait the people working at a newly established fitness centre in Bodø. It's a community for physical therapy, osteopaths and similar things. Their focus is rehabilitating anything from older people who is recovering from medical treatment to professional athlethes recovering from injury.

I wanted to create a new expression outside the box to give the company an advantage when promoting themselves. So instead of the dental-white fake smiles which every company try to sell as true, I wanted to communicate the simple truth.

So I wanted to communicate trust. When you go to these people you are afterall trusting them with your health. Where other businesses are looking like a crocked used car dealer with fake smiles, these people can stand out and show that we are professionals - we understand your situation and you can trust us.

Rather than working with fake smiles I decided to work only with their eyes which means working with their souls. Show yourself and be vulnerable and harmless. Be the one every patient dreams of; their equal. That is to stand out.

Hope you enjoy these images. I put a lot of thought into them, even ever the simplicity.

Business portraits for Enter Service (Hörmann)

I was approached by Enter Service in Bodø, which is the local agent for Hörmann gates, and they wanted portraits of all their employees, This was my first job since back in Bodø, and for me it was important to start doing things outside the box from my first job.

Because their employees are scattered all around the county, the only day I could do this shot was just a couple of days after the client contacted me, when everybody was in town for a gathering.

So I ran back to the office and started to sketch out some ideas which would fit the clients wishes as well as trying to go outside the box. The client was determined that he wanted portraits on white backdrop in studio, but aside that I was free to be creative.

These people are hands-on workers, and I wanted them to look that way, so I did a semi hard light setup to create the effect I wanted and did the developing in accordance to this. Also I told the workers to show up in dirty clothes that had been used on the jobsite and do this very "manly" pose. The managment was told to meet in a clean set of everyday clothes from the office, and I made them do a different more outgoing pose since they interact a bit different with their clients.

Underneath you can see the results, and for a series of quick and simple portraits with little time to prepare myself I am fairly pleased with it. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Basic shoot with model Kristina Hansen

One of the things I enjoy most is fashion photography. I can really focus on details, light and just try to create perfection. However that is easier said than done up north; here is no fashion industry, very few make up artists and even fewer models.

So I feel blessed to have met and worked with Kristina. She is always positive, always try to make time and has a look and body that really works with modeling. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of cute girls up here, but that modeling X-factor is so hard to find.

These pictures are just about untouched. Since they are basic pictures no retouching is allowed. Instead I try to work with the correct light modifyers and just use the raw converter to my advantage, and now we are really just talking pure developing (contrast, color, highlights/shadows/blacks etc).

Also the models can't pose in these images. So I bend the rules a bit, she is not really doing poses, just moving around a bit to show herself and creating negative spaces really. Also it's worth to notice that she is not wearing any makeup in these pictures. 

Hope you enjoy these images. Kristina comes highly recommended.