Portrait Photographer 2022

December 29, 2021

Portrait Photographer 2022

And Goodbye 2021… May you Rest In Peace! LOL…

Being a portrait photographer 2022 means seeing people and a lot of the time in close contact – small spaces – in peoples homes – in nature too but helping them fix their hair and adjust clothing. You know things that before was normal and now we are so socially distant aren’t we?

I mean we still see people but the two last years truly turned my business of photographing people upside down – as many other peoples lives was turned upside down too. I’m not here to cry about the last two years – even though I have to admit we all kinda feel drawn to do so at times. But let’s leave 2021 behind as one of those years that taught us a lot about ourselves about humanity. It makes me think about how we are all so incredibly close – and in essence ONE. We see it when the contamination chains start to unravel our existence – we are close we are connected – we see each other and who we see sees another person that also knows someone we know.

I love to travel and you might too and here I see how incredibly connected we are in the world, not just in our little communities. The signs of us being connected are everywhere and we are so socially virtually available that even if we don’t know each other in person or never even meet we could have a ton in common. It’s a strange world of being so connected yet so apart.

So where am I going with this. I guess for me as a photographer life as I knew it was pretty much gone and I had to find new paths. And I wanted to share with you what I found! Maybe it can inspire you if you are a photographer – maybe it can help you if you feel lost or maybe you just would like to know what I have been up too. Either way enough ramble here we go.

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER – SWEDEN – OUR LITTLE HOUSE IN THE FORREST

My time away from being portrait photographer and taking pictures off people – weddings and gatherings was replaces with lots of time with family and our kids.

It was spent in Sweden in our little house in the woods. In a place I grew up as little girl every summer alone with my grandmother. Yes its the very house my grandparents bought and we bought it back now 20 years later from a sweet older couple.

A place that deeply connected me to nature. Where we went outside to the bathroom and we lived with only cold water in the tap and washing was in the lake. A simple life it was and still in many ways is. Now the house have running water and a bathroom and all the comforts of a home – except a dishwasher… But I love it here. I look out the window and see trees and forrest and I go outside and hear the silence. It’s magical when the snow falls and its amazing on the long scandinavian summer nights. So here a new project that was started a long time ago had time to grow.

If you need to get away and want time alone or with some loved ones to connect with nature I want to share it with you. So do feel free to check our little gem out on Air Bnb where you can rent our little house “FRIHETEN” Means FREDOM in Swedish.

RENT OUR HOUSE IN THE WOODS IN SWEDEN

& yes its next to a lake shaped like a heart! <3 for real!

A childrens Book about plastic in the ocean

So the time not spent being a portrait photographer was spent in nature and if you who know me or heard me speak know how passionate I am about our oceans and plastic free living.

I wanted to create something beautiful because I dislike the idea of tragic stories to capture an audience. I believe in inspiring and captivating people to good and not use fear as a way to make people care. So together with my little wetsuit family we wrote a children’s book about plastic in the ocean and what we could do to help the planet and the little things we as a family could do.

The book is filled with little ocean and plastic facts and built around a great adventure story where the kids are ocean heroes. Because the truth is that our kids and their generation will need to be the ocean heroes to save the planet from the fast deterioration we as their parents have helped create.

So my hope is that kids all over the world will be inspired by this book and it is a conversation starter. And an initiative for families to get into what they could do to eliminate the use of plastic. So after 2 years of wring – finding the right illustrator and amazing souls helping me translate it so its now in English – Swedish and Danish – the book is now finished and for sale in the first edition a thick fine art book that is truly beautiful to look at and hold. And of course made with no plastic!

Here are some images of the book and you can get it here.

GET YOUR COPY HERE: Plastic Oceans Book

Portrait Photographer Gone Artist

Lastly I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I feel in this life its a constant battle between being able to put food on the table and staying in integrity. At least for me this is a constant struggle between needing and enjoying making people happy with my services as a photographer / artist or go full on starving artist and not care if people like you or not. LOL.. could also be it isn’t quite as black and white as that I then tell myself.

Maybe exactly that is the answer the fine line between there two – where you do what you love and photograph as you want but still the people who love you for just that find you.. and just this place is where I’d like to live more of in 2022. I want to continue making art – making images and doing what I love and hope you will love me the same or even more the more you get to know me. Also a reminder to myself as much as for you – we don’t have to be for everyone – but we have to be for ourselves what feels true.

As a final note on that I’m sharing my personal project images with Nicole Edensbo in my home in Sweden – brings me immense pleasure to create in nature with other creatives like this beautiful human.