I have truly gotten a new sense of enthusiasm about taking pictures and I feel like a kid again in everything I do with the camera.

My first step is with a clean slate. Me and my subject. I say hi, we engage in conversation.

I ask, I listen.

As before I observe but this time I also offer up my own story. Instead of an interview trying to extract some response from my subject I share myself as well. I take pictures when they talk but also when they listen. There’s moments of very comfortable silence. I shoot more.

I don’t push too far. I don’t give too much. I feel great about my first portrait encounter…

This is not a new direction for me but a step on the way to connect and to include. A great exercise and experience.

Being curious. Opening up.   Blending myself and subject.

I’ll do more of these and will take this first step with me….

Through this I have matured as a photographer, starting to ask myself the more existential questions of being an image-maker.

-Why do I choose to photograph the things I do and what part of myself drives me towards these subject matters?

-How do I relate and respond to not only the subject but also the idea and concept of the image?

-What is my perspective and what do I want to say with the images I take?

I have found that answering these questions is not all that important as the answers will always change. What is more helpful to me is being aware of them and to ask them again and again as I make new pictures…

The past months has been a bit slower and it’s given me great time and opportunity to sit down and reflect on these questions, where I stand and what I have accomplished so far as a photographer.

I’m really proud of my work to date but I also feel I can improve and do better. Having the time to contemplate what can be improved upon have been a great thing and it leaves me feeling like I just have scratched the surface of what I can say with my pictures and what I hope to pull out of myself visually.

What I have found to be the essence of what I want to add and infuse into my images is a greater sense of curiosity.

Early on in my career I photographed a lot of older men. I truly feel that growing up without a dad and having that void in my life made me attracted to this subject matter. Looking back at the pictures I took then I see great emotion and honesty. There’s a personal way for me to relate to the men I photographed that truly shows in the images. The longing for a father figure is gone but I do want to open up this part of myself again. Not from a healing perspective but from a curiosity standpoint about whom the people I photograph truly are. An inquisitive interest in where they are from, what journey life have taken them on and the little things that have led them to our encounter.

So to improve my images further I want to be curious about my subjects and connect with them in a way that exposes something both about them and myself. To make it a collaboration and a true interaction and rather than me observing and capturing.

In crafting better pictures, I want to be curious and create curiosity.  An invested interest on my part about the people and places I photograph that has a storytelling aspect that lingers…

My images today are beautiful observations and interpretations.  By adding true emotion from the people I photograph I hope to further invite my subject into the images and make the pictures as much about them as myself.

To create curiosity I would like to make the moment of capture a part of the unseen moments taking place before and after. I want to add elements that keep the story more open ended, enticing the viewer to engage in the story, asking their own questions.

I have tried to incorporate this in my latest editorial and advertising work making the pictures both beautiful and storytelling at the same time.

And why am I putting this out there on my blog?

The answer is growth and self-awareness.

This blog will be my journal so that in some small way I can measure myself.  A place for me to see if there’s progress made and in the true sense of community, provide a place for you to interact and perhaps capture your own moment of inspiration…

Being a photographer can be lonely at times and I often miss the group dynamics of class critiques at school.  I invite you to see and critique my images as I create them (attempting to avoid the sometimes flattering and other times unfair judgment I put upon myself), hopefully receiving the honest perspective of my peers looking at my work with a degree of separation and fresh eyes.

Thank you so much for reading this and I would love to hear your thoughts going forward!

Erik

UP_Farm

Travelling back to SF Saturday and then home to Trondheim, Norway on Tuesday for the holidays.

Can’t wait!