Friday, December 30, 2011

New Year's eve

The old year is almost over. Done. Finished... Next!
There is many good things to remember from 2011 and I wish that I had been better to blog about all these things that happened so that I could go back and look at it all in a few years. This would be a good time to make a new years resolution about being better at posting here at the blog but I think we have heard that song before. So I'm not gonna go there.

Instead of promising things that I might not be able to keep I'm gonna tell you about some projects that I plan on doing next year. That's kind of a new years resolution, right? If I write it down here it feels like I have to follow up on it.

2012 will be the year where I will have my very first solo show. March 24th will be the opening date for my Black Metal portrait show at Lionheart Gallery in Germany. I will get into this more in another post where I will have more time to get into details and such.

2012 will also be the year where we finally start using our newly build darkroom. It has taken us a long time to finish this but I have a feeling that it will be all worth it. The projects are already lining up to get started and it surely will be great to be able to develop our own rolls of film instead of depending on expensive, slow labs. I love the thought of being involved in all the steps of making the picture instead of depending on strangers to finish what you started. On top of this I have found the most amazing printer that will allow me to print my digital pictures on amazing papers. Again something that I have had to get done at expensive labs, not always to my satisfaction. Now I just need to buy this wonder machine.
Another project that we have been looking forward to get into is making our own t-shirts and such. 2012 will hopefully bring a whole bunch of limited edition t-shirts, patches and what else we can print on. But it's not only the limited kind of shirts that I am planing on doing. As soon as time allows me, I am gonna go talk to a guy about the last details before printing the first batch. Yep!

In the past there has been many ideas for different book projects. All has faded and turned into other ideas that would never see the light of day. 2012 will hopefully be the year that I actually do get to follow through on one of these ideas and turn it into an actual book. I plan on revealing the theme and some of my ideas for this project pretty soon as I need your help to pull this off. Soon...promise.

One of my latest obsessions has been Norwegian Black Metal. This has not only taken over my music collection but also taken a big part of my artistic vision and choice of subject matter. Many has jumped on this genre as a result of trend and many might think the same about me but those close to me know that Black metal really has taken a big piece of me and that this is much more than a trendy fling. This will be something that I will take with me into the new year and that you will see much more of in the future just as I still have a sweet spot for the occult and satanic imagery. ... Yes there will also still be room for cute animals and other things of non evilness... Don't worry.

For a long time I have been wanting to get into doing something more... daring. I don't like the term erotic... in my head it sound like some cheesy 90's softporn. That alone has been reason enough for me to hold back on the more graphic ideas I have had. That and the fear of what people might think and if I would shock the people close to me. Well, my awesome wife is dealing with the fear of what people MIGHT think and how that can restrain your self and she is doing a great job so I should do something about it as well. I have been in love with "erotic" photography for a long time but have way to many times felt "embarrassed" about it because people COULD see it as just porn. And so what if they did? Their problem. But it still bugs me that people automaticly degrades pictures of naked people to jerkoff material and that's not what I have in mind for what I want to do. Funny as how something like sex and nudity is still so hush hush in some cases even for someone like me. So be warned... there will be a lot of adult content in the future and hopefully I will be able to loosen up and let go of all the restraints at some point.

Something completely different that I am really really looking forward to in the new year is to go back to Japan. I still can't believe that it has been so long since we have been there. We already have two trips planed for this spring and the first will be in Febuary. Can't wait to see our friends again and to come home to the place that we love so much.
We love to travel so I hope that the new year will bring many exciting travels and adventures. I hope to be able to make it back to the states to visit some of our friends there, but also new countries would be nice. We will see.

Japan will hopefully also be the theme for many new photo sets. I have already planed to revisit a few of the ones from last time like bikes, legs and people in the streets in general. Hopefully I will be a bit less shy this time.
I'm planning on improving my photo skills a lot next year by taking a lot of pictures. Practice, practice, practice!!! I can only hope that new exciting projects will present them self along the way.

I had many other things that I wanted to write about and include in my new-years-to-do-list but as you might have noticed after reading this far, my writing skills have not been my strongest skill today. Me words today not good very much please. It might be better to stop before I loose all my followers or kill you with boredom.

But before I let you go I would like to say thank you for 2011 to all my customers, blog followers, instagram followers, Twitter followers and people in the real world who show interest in what i do, to all my friends and family and to my amazing wife who always supports me in what ever stupid plan I get. I love you.

See you all in 2012
Happy New Year