Directing a model
I have worked as a professional photographer and photojournalist since the analogous Stone Age back in the late sixties and early seventies.
After a spell shooting portraits and commercial work in Denmark I went on an assignment
in Greece for a Danish travel agency. One assignment led to another, and I ended up working almost full time for the agency the next three years, crossing through Europe and the Middle East with my cameras.
Now traveling was in my blood and I was looking for other opportunities to see the world. Inspired by a former boss I decided to try my luck with housing magazines and, soon I had magazines in seven countries in Europe as clients.
The editors wanted articles, not just photos, and at first I worked with journalists, but this soon became complicated when I found my subjects further and further away from home. My solutions was to write notes, which the editors could use as inspiration, but one day I found a British magazine had published my notes as the actual article – and from that day I was a photojournalist.
But the most important career change was yet to come. One of the Danish housing magazines shared part of the editorial staff with a car magazine and I showed the editor some pictures I did at Le Mans that year, asking if I could do some work for the car magazine as well.
The next moment I found myself on a plane to Rome for a car launch. “You used to be a hobby racer I heard,” explained the editor, and now I was testdriver for the magazine as well as photojournalist with a keen interest in motorsport.
I traveled the world, covering motorsport events as a freelancer until the economic climate forced many of my clients to pull out. I still cover motorsport events on national level, and I do the occasional portrait and photo illustration.
With the digital revolution I also found new challenges. I noticed that my colleagues in the pressroom often asked for my advice and this inspired me to arrange my first workshops. This was a real eye opener. I think at first the teacher learned more than the students. Suddenly I was forced to know what I was doing, not just rely on spinal marrow and instinct.
I wonder what comes next?
