Journal

Here you will find behind the scenes snippets, vigenttes and occasional deep dive into my projects and commissions.



Fjellnettverket, Norway
Anne Kjersti Løvstad. Toen gård, Flesberg, Numedal, Buskerud.
Roadtrip

Norway is a country close to my heart. I’ve had the privilege to work on many interesting projects and commissons, photographing its people and landscape for many years.

The latest visit occurred during the closing days of summer to work on a new initiative being developed by Fjellnettverket (Mountain Network) called Bondens bord (farmer’s table).

The commission involved driving 1,884 km to 17 rural mountain farms across the counties of Innlandet, Buskerud and Telemark in just 9 days. All fully EV of course, as Norway is a few years ahead of most countries in the transition from ICE to full battery powered transit. With the advent of numerous 360kw charging stations located even in the most remote areas, the excuses of range anxiety and slow charging are squashed.


Fjellnettverket

Acting as a cooperative body for Norwegian counties, regional councils and municipalities with mountain areas, Fjellnettverket represents the interests of mountain communties to ensure viable and attractive modern living. 

Ultimately wanting the ‘mountain perspective’ to be incorporated into all national governing policies, the cooperative focuses on demonstrating the value of natural resources, managing mountain sustainblity, ensuring natural resources are beneficial to present and future inhabitants, and for examining ways for visitors to use the mountain areas in a ‘gentle way’.

Storeggen gård, Tynset, Innlandet.

Bondens bord

Agriculture, food production and tourism are established forms of industry in rural areas. However, there is still unused value creation within these industries, especially when the cultural landscape is incoporated at a local farmer’s perspective. Seeking ways to combine the strengths of agriculture, food production and tourism, Fjellnettverket looked to the Faore Islands to test their service called Heimablídni (home hospitality).

In recent decades, the Faroe Islands have experienced a large influx of tourists, with much of the riches being concentrated in the cities. At the same time, there has been a desire for rural areas to serve good, locally produced food. Responding to that wealth deficit, a Faroese tradition of Heimablídni where guests pay to experience traditional meals in local people's homes was introduced to tourists too.

Norway has experienced a significant tourism boom too, with large influx of visitors during holidays and weekends. Surveys from Innovation Norway show that more and more people want special experiences and wish to eat locally produced food at source - not just international visitors but Norwegians as well. So adapting Heimablídni into Norway’s mountain regions is how Bondens bord was formed.


Photographic themes

Whilst Bondens bord is still in the development stages Elin Halland Simensen, Fjellnettverket’s Project Manager for Food & Tourism commissioned me to start building a photographic narrative around the farmers who will be offering Bondens bord when it is formally launched in Spring 2025.

With the diverse range of personalities within the Bondens bord network, I felt that a series of impactful environmental portraits would be best, as one could feather in visual clues to what each farmer will be offering. By framing the farmers with a strong sense of place, we could vary the clues - from the location of the table visitors will be eating at, through to highlighting the type of fresh produce that their meals will be prepared from.

Even in the late summer Norwegian weather can be challenging in the mountains with regular wind, rain and even light snow on the higher ground. I thought it fun to incorporate those meterological realities into the photographs, as the conditions are representative of working life in the fjells.

Another theme that Elin and I were keen on illustrating was that modern Norway is alive in the mountains, so embracing a contemporary designer kitchen, considered building renovation or innovative farming methods in the series better reflects the farming community embracing the initiative. Afterall, many of the farmers we visited are a new generation with young children who have been away forging careers and skillsets before deciding to return to their family roots to rekindle their farms’ past successes but adapted to secure future prosperity with outside knowledge and experience.

This post features just a select few of the formal portraits and some extra details captured whilst spending time at each farm. 

Karen Elise & August Steig. Steig Gard, Sør-Fron, Gudbrandsdalen, Innlandet.

Behind the scenes

As this is a Journal post, I feel it appropriate to show 3 behind the scene shots showing lighting, iPhone snaps and video. When emarking on this type of commission, one has to be flexible and able to adapt to non-ideal lighting and people’s working schedules (people being photographed are working farmers, not models) so even the best time of day with nice soft natural light isn’t normally available.

One also has to assess the best elements of each farm to focus on, yet still offer a consistency across the photographic series - a fine balance. Farms are also not stage sets or ‘studio’ ready, so one has to often augment the scene by moving ojbects, physically hiding visual distractions - all whilst still capturing an honest portrayal of the farmers and their surroundings. In short, problem solving on the fly.

Tina & Øyvind Mestrand. Mestrand Gard, Vågå in Gudbrandsdalen, Innlandet.
Bring the light!

Tina & Øyvind at Mestrand Gard
 
We arrived arrived at Mestrand Gard around midday with intermittent sorching sun directly above. Not ideal. Seeking out a wonderful greenhouse built by Øyvind, I knew that the lush green and rippening tomatoes would project a kind of agri-tech, Wired Magazine editorial vibe, so I placed lights either side of the greehouse and with power ramped up, the non modified, contrasty light would flood the space with the foilage acting as gobos.

Lightly directing Tina & Øyvind, a fresh oasis was pulled out of a dark and shadowy growing room. Look closely and you can see sheep wool layering the ground - both to reduce parasites and retain moisture.

Line Berget Hedegart. Brekke gård, Gransherad in Notodden, Telemark.
So. Much. Rain.

Line Berget Hedegart at Brekke gård

As you can see in my video, it was pouring heavily with rain when we arrived Line’s farmhouse. The rain had not stopped all day and with Line being our last photoshoot of that day, I knew we had to embrace the rain to ensure her magnificent garden was captured.

Using an umbrella to project an even and soft light across the scene, the flat light was lifted, ensuring a ‘brightness’ to the vegetation, whilst also illuminating Line’s face to subtley pull her out of her umbrella’s shadow. Again, a little direction in terms of facial expression and seemingly spontaneous movement to act as if caught in the rain. Line was such fun to collaborate with.

Later that evening we were nearly caught in a flood where a river had burst its banks - many main roads were damaged over night, with emergency warnings galore.


Inger Torill Holte Breien. Breie gård, Etnedal, Valdres, Innlandet.


Inger Torill at Breie gård

Breie gård sits on top of a glorious 711m high hill deep in the heart of the Valdres valley, with unterrupted views for miles and miles. Crisp air and a sun drenched cloud free view greeted us upon arrival.

I was immediatley struck by the elegance of the main house which has been wonderfully restored after Inger Torill returned to the family home a few years back. With such a large canvas, it can be tricky to distill the ‘feeling’ of a location, so I often reduce the frame to a few key components - in this case, Inger Torill herself and a tight compostion of the house. The house was the star of the show but was completely bathed in morning shadow, so I set about making a few changes.

Because the entire house was in shadow, I was able to expose for the shadows to give a nice, richly detailed exposure. To ensure that Inger Torill was illuminated, I placed an unbrella directly at her but far enough away from the house to even light the frame edge to egde - the largest fill light if you will. Yes, I can hear you ask - where’s the umbrella’s reflection Emile? Opening the double doors achived 2 crictical aims; firstly to give a sense of welcoming and add depth to a ‘flat’ looking frontage and secondly ensure that no glass was in line with the umbrella’s light beam. With the sun hastily moving to break light across the roofline, we quickly moved some distracting objects inside the house, opened a random blind on the top floor to create more even symmetry, afterwhich I directed Inger Torill into her pose.

A nice frame was taken. 3 additonal frames captured to offer some an alternative poses and we were complete, then serendipty appeared...

...the sun had risen to the point where it started to flare across my wide angle lens - perfect. We immediately repeated the poses before the flare was too much and unfocused (and totally extracting all contrast). We wrapped and sat down for breakfast and coffee. 

Johan Höglund. Søre Brøstrud gård, Uvdal, Numedal, Buskerud.

Marita Stordalen Stegarud. Stordalen Gardsbruk, Tinn, Telemark.

Tusen takk

I want to extend my warmest gratitude to all 17 farmers I met and photographed this summer. Your collective warmth and welcome made me smile daily.

Also, the pride in your produce and passion for communicating your stories is delightful. I wish you all the greatest success.

Finally, a very special thank you to Elin Halland Simensen for trusting my photographic eye once again. 2 weeks of great conversation and laughter, astute charging decisions and, of course, visting a fantastic range of murder hotels

fjellnettverket.no





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