I've always been a little afraid of street photography. Or rather: people in the street photography. Portraits of people, the not-dressed-up-and-scheduled-photoshoot-ones, portraits where you try to capture people just as they are, that's the new challenge we have set ourselves.
Greatly inspired by Brandon Stanton, the inventor and driving force behind Humans of New York, we decided to start Humans of the Nordic Region. Seen as Humans of Sweden was already taken and Humans of Jämtland somehow felt a bit too limited, we named it after Norden. The Nordic Region comprises of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
With all the preparations done, there was still the tiny little hurdle of actually getting started. But you know what? It's just like pitching that great business idea: believe in yourself, believe in the idea and know what you want to achieve, there's your elevator pitch for you.
New York of course has streets aplenty. Here in our immediate surroundings, streets are a little harder to come by. So we expanded street photography with photography in the natural surroundings. Just taking a stroll here on our hometurf, had me bumping into Roger the gardener, Rödöns most flexible entrepreneur and the great couple that lives in one of the most beautiful houses around.
And you know what? Once I decided I really wanted to get going with this awesome photoproject, my fear was gone. I used the 24-70 and went out to talk to Roger. He was all ears and wanted to take part. It was a cloudy day, so I put the WB on Shade and I mostly shot at f5.6, 1/160 and ISO200.
I have to bear in mind though, that I need to give myself - and the people I'm taking photos of - more time. More time for the right pose, more time to relax, more time to coax them into telling me a bit more about what's going on with them. Just a couple of lines to take the viewer even deeper into your image, gives the image even more power I find.
I can't wait to go out again. I'll probably relive that anxious feeling when I'm about to approach my first person, but I've decided that I just have to go out there and venture. I know what I want, I've got what it takes and we've got this great big catalogue of beautiful Nordic portraits to create!
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