Thursday, 18 March 2010
Time: 18:00 - 21:00
Location: VIKTOR WYND FINE ART INC
Street: 11 Mare Street (E8 4RP)
Town/City: London, United Kingdom
You can find more info about it here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=379838134528.
Where are you from / where do you live?
I was born 1981 in Vänersborg in Sweden and I grew up in Trollhättan. I moved away from home at 16. After that I spent most of my time in London and at the moment I live in Paris, but I still go back to London and Sweden ever so often. I think I work best when I keep moving around.
How / when / where did you start taking pictures?
I wanted to start sooner but my parents thought I would break the camera so I had to wait until they decided I was old enough and bought one for me. So I started on my 10th birthday in my home taking pictures of the cake and my feet and my best friend sitting on the toilet. Pretty much the same thing I do now.
Who are the people in your pictures?
Friends, loves, family, models, me. Anyone who can pretend that the camera isn't there. My friend Amanda Ericsson is in tons and tons of them.
Why is it that you often place yourself in your pictures?
First of all because I'm always around.
And I keep my work very close to me. It's always been myself I am trying to push rather than someone else.
What inspires you?
Sweden at night. Discussing with my boyfriend. My sisters cat. Movements. Falling in love.
What is your Favorite subject?
My absolute favorite subject is my own life and the people in it. I shoot it and show it like a diary.
Your images seem very personal - how important is the idea of an end viewer or audience to your work?
A few years ago I had 0 viewers, and that is how I started and probably also why I started. Today I guess the viewer is somewhere in the back of my mind but I don't admit that I think about him or her before I get to the selection process for my website / books / magazines.
Is editing a key part of your process?
Yes editing is super important. I think I spend more time editing the images than I do taking them. And I tend to reedit a lot. It's a process very much alive and my website is never finished. How I chose to show something seems just as important to me as the fact that I chose to show it.
Maybe I should add here that I don't retouch them or crop them. When it comes to the actual picture it's what I see through the camera that I show.
Who are your favourite photographers?
Araki is my big time favourite, I can always come back to his work and find something new. I also love JH Engström, Annelies Štrba, Åke Hedströms book Emma, Elinor Carucci's book Closer, and many more that i can't remember at the moment. And my dad's photos and my boyfriend's.
Did you study photography?
Not really, no. I took some courses at school when I was 16, but that's it.
I picked up a lot from growing up in an environment where I had access to cameras and photographic books. My dad took loads of pictures of us, and watching the family slides with the projector was always amazingly fun for me.
And after that I started modeling and saw how most professional fashion photographers work - and I learnt how I don't want to work.
Can you recommend a university/school?
No. If people like to learn photography in a structured way - then I am sure education can be amazing, but I know nothing about photographic education so I can not recommend anything. I would just recommend experimenting on your own and not paying too much attention to other people's critiques. If you enjoy the process or result - then you must have done something right.
How do you go about achieving spontaneity in a photograph, what is the process in your fashion shoots?
Well I have realised that that is probably the most difficult thing when you work with fashion. There are so many set rules and boundaries in fashion photography and it's difficult to make something spontaneous with a sense of reality.
My personal pics I just take when I find them, but when I do a fashion shoot I have to work with some degree of planning. I have to know which people I will work with, when and where. But that's it. after that I take the day as it comes. I work with natural light so if there is a cloud over the sun then that will effect the mood of the day / pic. And I work with a small automatic camera that allows me to move around a lot. And I never give more directions than I have to, avoiding to force things.
I work for a magazine called .... and would love you to shoot for us, can you do it?
If you have any questions that are related to commissioning me for a magazine or commercial thing it's best if you contact my very good agent Molly Logan at Fred and Associates.
What magazine's have you worked for?
AnOther magazine, AnOther man, Double, Exit, Elle US, Numero Korea, Dazed and Confused and a few others.
Where have you exhibited your work in the past?
Here! :-)
2009 - Looking for love, Vidvinkel at Centrum för fotografi, Stockholm (Sweden)
2009 - Vidvinkel + GFC, Stockholms kulturfestival, Stockholm (Sweden)
2009 - Everything is possible: a polaroid groupshow, gallery space at space 15 twenty, Los Angeles (USA)
2009 - Lina Scheynius diary, Slide Nite, Bern (Switzerland)
2008 - Örebro Open art, Örebro (Sweden)
2008 - Resurrection, the National Arts Club, New York (USA)
2008 - Various Photographs curated by Tim Barber, New York photo festival, New York (USA)
2008 - Kern and sons, Gallery Mycroft, Paris (France)
2008 - Swedish Destiny and Adventure, Sebastian Guiness Gallery, Dublin (Ireland)
2008 - First impressions last, Minneapolis (USA)
2008 - In the light of night The winter gallery, Toronto (Canada)
2007 - Set Foot - Absolut Sweden festival, Filmbase, Dublin (Ireland)
Do you sell prints?
Not yet no because I haven't yet decided how I want to print my pictures. But I have a selection of polaroids for sale here: www.linascheynius.com/polaroid100projectpart1.html
And there will be prints at my exhibition in london, but more about that soon.
What is the idea behind your books?
I wanted to create beautiful affordable books that didn't take up a lot of space. Kind of like the photographic version of paperback books. Something that would make great presents.
I got the idea being ill and not able to leave my bunk-bed in Mongolia two summers ago, and I have made two books since then. It's going to be a series of many many I hope.
How did you make your website?
I programmed it myself with a fairly user friendly program called GoLive.
Ok, I have done enough talking about this subject now I think.
THANK YOU for reading.
If you think there is a question I have to add here, then send me an email!
:-)
/Lina
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