Self Reflection

My artworks are small science experiments on how the human body, psyche and world are interpreted and seen by humans. With surreal effects created in-camera I aim to surprise and confuse and leave one with the question of what is real.

An essay from my subconscious mind:

When the sun finally returned after a long winter, I pointed my head towards the sun and with closed eyes sensed the warmth and light reaching my forehead and all the way through my eyelids into my eyeballs. Inside my mind I saw the sunlight dancing like a blooming flower nourishing me with an energy I had longed for all winter.

The image appeared then on my retina. Something wanted to be communicated. It wanted out of my head, and with a bright idea I started to outline my plan. I collected my equipment as if collecting ingredients for a recipe: two mirrors, my camera, the silver balls, oranges, strawberries, glass cleaner, and a friend of mine as the model. We then went to the fields.

Through the lens I looked for forms, shapes and colors to be found and captured. ‘How does the model move before me, how does their body reflect in my mirror, what feeling does it give me?’ I was asking myself. The shoot must have lasted a couple of hours, but it felt like time simply vanished.

I was intensely concentrated and so much in the moment that I sensed nothing but what I saw before me. The creativity had sneaked into my brain and set me free to dive into another world. When this other world had taken over my whole brain and body, I started to create. My own body dissolved away, and I sensed none of my physical needs.

The final image came to me suddenly. It felt like someone put it inside my brain. I was moved. I took a step back and I looked at the scene from reality again: the model was not distorted anymore. The mirror was put aside in the grass. My knees were hurting, and I was all dirty from moving around on the ground.

Stepping back into the real world I could now look at myself from a different angle. I looked at my work and uncovered what felt like a self-reflection: familiar, yet new and unseen, like a dream I had once had.

About the project:

The Project has been exhibited at Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm in 2024, and will be exhibited at Fotografiska Museum Tallinn in 2025 under the title "Kaleidoscope".

In 2024 the project was published by Disko Bay under the title "Self Reflection".