a couple of weeks ago i got in my car and drove up into the mountains here in norway to document the wedding of a sweet, young couple. the temperature outside was freezing...it was about about -23º celsius...but inside there was a roaring fireplace, great food and good times to be had.

i've put together a little slideshow with images from the night before the wedding. the bride and groom had invited their families and closest friends for a little pre-wedding fun.

all images except the first one were shot with the leica m9 and the 35mm summilux wide open.

enjoy.

Renate & Erlend - a preview. from stereosaint on Vimeo.

[bryllupsfotograf] [bryllupsfotografering] [morgan sikkerboel] [vinterbryllup] [geilo] [vestlia resort]

it's that time of year again. the darkness is creeping in and here in norway we've just turned our watches an hour back in order to save ourselves some more of the precious daylight - the sun is setting at about 4pm now, so that's a downer, but at least we get to see it rising in the wee hours of morning. those of us who manages to get up early, that is. not sure i can include myself in that particular group...hehe.

trick or treat - which is it? here in norway halloween is a new tradition and so far the kids seem more reluctant and/or scared when they ring the doorbell than anything else. which is a good thing, by all means. no need for me to bring out the baseball bat just yet. kidding.

in a way i feel this tradition is a bit forced over here. it seems it's more beneficial to the commercial vendors than it is the people. much like valentine's actually. who needs a day a year of romance when there's 364 more to do the most of?

dunno what that says about halloween, though. why make one day scary, when there's 364 more that's as scary as ever. trick or treat...

- morgan -

last friday i was fortunate enough to be able to shoot the norwegian artist sivert hoyem's guest list-only release concert at a small club in downtown oslo. he just released his third album 'under administration' and 250 fans were lucky enough to experience the new album first hand.

i shot the concert using a leica m9 with (mostly) a leica summilux-m 50mm pre-asph lens and i can't wait to show you guys my results. look out for a post with a slew of images from the show in a day or two.

in the mean time, please enjoy these images of some pretty exclusive fine art prints i made earlier tonight. the epson 4900 in combination with hahnemühle paper is killer to say the least.

as always: click like, click share and help me spread the word - and thanks for stopping by!

flag of heroes, ground zero

ten years ago i was sitting in my studio recording some tracks when a text message ticked in and told me to go online. i did and what i witnessed was the world spinning out of control - in real time.

three months earlier - june 11th - at about 9am i was standing on the observation deck of the world trade center looking out at the statue of liberty. it was my first visit to new york and my second visit to the states. i remember seeing all the things i'd only heard about or watched in movies and, like countless others coming to the big apple for the first time, walked around with my head tilted backwards and my eyes aiming for the skyskrapers high above. the world trade center, empire state, rockefeller, madison square guarden, brooklyn bridge, moma, coney island, central park, 5th avenue, broadway, times square, washington square park, chelsea, the village...i was going to take them all in.

obviously i didn't get to do all of it on that first trip, even though i spent 10 days there. new york is the kind of city that invites you to hang out. the spirit of the city is an attraction in itself.  in the words of alicia keys: 'if i can make it there, i can make it anywhere...that's what they say'. no need to chase around town. the energy elevates you when you're there.

speaking of elevation - the reason for my visit in the first place was a u2 show in madison square guarden. i think springsteen is the only one who's able to get new yorkers to go completely bonkers apart from u2. the power of that show has stayed with me ever since...people were singing along from the first line of 'beautiful day' and they knew every word by heart. with hands raised the crowd almost drowned out the band. at least that's what it felt like from where i was standing in row 22. by the time the band got to the hallalujah-part of 'walk on', people were crying. that show was off the chart as far as emtions go. i haven't experienced anything like it - only in new york. the line 'but you've got an unquenchable thirst for new york' from the song 'new york' suddenly took on a whole nother meaning for me...

this post is not about me, though. it's about how the world changed that day. it's about the people who lost their lives, the pepole who lost their loved ones and about the people that lose their lives today in a war against ghosts of present, past and future terror. i salute you.

it's hard to write something about a city that almost everyone wants as their hometown without getting personal. in the days following 9/11 - everyone was a new yorker. i know that i still aspire to that - i want to be a new yorker.

in my heart i know i am.

remember, remember...the eleventh of september.

blurred skyline, nyc

oslo love

almost 200 000 people gathered in the heart of oslo. 200 000 people armed with nothing but roses. it was a lovely mess to behold.

i know - this has been covered everywhere for weeks on end. you are all probably tired from the massive coverage that has been going on in every imaginable media outlet. for a while the coverage remained an informative initiative but it is quickly turning in to a tabloid frenzy.

this will be my last post on the subject, but please bear with me as i tell you a little about the images of this post. i wanted to be downtown at this event. i knew it was going to be special. of course it would be many opportunities for great images, but i wanted to be there to experience the atmosphere. i needed to be there in order to feel a sort of closure but also to show my respect for the ones who had lost.

i hope that these images give you a sense of the event, a sense of the emotions of oslo at that particular moment in time. it was truly special. the images don't do it justice at all, of course, but at least they sum up how i felt and saw oslo that evening - full of love, forgiveness and hope. i wish it was like that all the time.

...and i still predict a baby boom a year from now. that much love and that many roses in a little city like oslo, in a little country like norway? ;)

all you need is love.

- morgan -

nice to see some smiles reappearing

needless to say - when 200k people bring flowers, they pile up...

these lined up reporters had set up camp by the court house in oslo

a multitude of media networks were present in the city

these guys had climbed up on a wall and were in high spirits

some people chose solitude

people from many different ethnical & cultural backgrounds came together

people turned the fences that sealed off the bomb site into a giant floral arrangement 

the 30-something owner of this place was killed by the bomb

one love

the military guards the royal palace

it's late. the streets are empty. it's quiet. a distant siren or two cuts through the eerie silence and fades away. my beloved oslo feels like a ghost town.

everywhere there's police tape, road blocks and shattered glass. in a way it feels as if our innocence is lying there on the street - shattered as well. norway has been shaken up today - rattled from within.

i meet a few drunken teenagers who seem completely lost to what has happened only a few hours earlier. they get hushed down by someone in a window far above us and are immediately silenced; ashamed.

police are stationed around the blast site and i'm not allowed to get any closer, which is fine. i'm not there to look at a crater in the ground or damaged buildings. i'm out to clear my head, to walk off my anger, to comfort my pain and to feel what i feel in the city i grew up in. oslo is my hometown. with all its faults and its sort of low self-esteem, oslo has a little of everything: it's got a harbor, you've got nature close by, there's some interesting arcitecture, a castle and a palace and there's even a few old buildings to boot. oh - and oslo is the nations capital.

this post is not about my feelings for oslo, though. this post is neither about the killer. he gets enough attention as is. this post is about the emotions i felt walking through my city on one of the darker days in our nations history.

i dedicate this post to all the people who died or got hurt on this day and i pray for those who have lost someone they love. i love you. oslo loves you. norway loves you.

one love, one life. let's carry each other.

-morgan-

weapon at the ready

stairs

the main reason i fell in love with photography in the first place was that i could come up with an idea, and without much further ado, make it happen. i love music and i love the art of sound, but the results are often slow. not only that, but more often than not you'll also find yourself in need of a musician or even several musicians, singers and some sort of studio to realize your vision.

of course, many visual and/or photographic ideas also need major planning, a crew - think stylist, wardrobe, lighting, model(s), make-up artist - and that can be slow as well, but my point is - there's natural light, you grab your camera and you shoot. instant gratification. it's awesome...and when you have an idea and you succeed in making it happen --> you've got a one-way ticket to oompa-loompa-land.

this post explores several things i've been contemplating for quite some time. first, it's the vertical format. in my minds eye, i see horizontal images. or so i thought, anyway. then it's the look you want your images to have...as i've stated in my earlier post i've been in a kind of black & white mood for the last few months. colors have been...how should i put it..i've almost felt as if colors have been intruding on the motif of the image. colors have distracted me. sort of. don't get me wrong. i love colors. it's just been a thing.

then there's film. analog 35mm photographic film. now that's  c o l o r s. i'm working on a film-post, scanning frames (almost as we speak) and also sending some rolls off to a lab in the states to see what they're all about. very exciting. stay tuned for that.

but...i digress...i've mentioned format, color and last, but not least - there's how you put photographs together. when you're working with horizontal images they usually work on their on. at least that's the way i think about them. vertical images, on the other hand, are excellent for experimentation...which really is what this post is all about. see - i'm getting there eventually! ;)

enjoy the images and feel free to click the like-button, share the love with your friends - you know the drill. i'm off.

may the force be with you - always.

wood and wire

marimekko lights

shelf life

material mix

metal memories

mix and match

clean cut

nail and strings

lock and key

remix

tribute to mario

the main focus of my last post was on different people i observed while hanging out at egertorget here in oslo. this time around my focus is more on the enviroment and vibe of a place.

the city's main railroad station is located pretty much in the middle of oslo and it's a place they've built and rebuilt numberous times. you can definitely say the place looks and feels that way also. obviously there's a huge number of people passing through there each day but it's also a place where both kids and homeless people tend to hang out - an interesting mix i know. although i'm not focusing on the people passing through or hanging out at the central station in this post, i believe all places are defined by the people who inhabit them.

these images might reflect that.

i hope you enjoy these pretty rough and dramatic photographs from oslo central station and as always - tell me what you think, click the like-button and share the love.

have a good friday. ;)

-m-

turf war

solo

en route

boots

parking

make the call

a little piece of norway

i know, i know. it's been ages since my last post. or - to be more precise - close to three months (!) anyway. i apologize. seriously.

i have to be honest. the last weeks have been really hardcore. illness in my close family has really turned my days upside down and i haven't had the time nor inspiration to do much dedicated shooting. then there's work. w-o-r-k. i have, however, started shooting a lot of 35mm analog photography to document my day to day life. i will cover this in a separate post. i'm trying to get some scanning done, but it takes time. time, you say? ah yes...that precious & elusive substance more valuable than solid gold in my honest opinion. gimme gimme gimme.

role play

but back to the task at hand. photography. my passion. i actually had an hour to kill (believe it or not) the other day and went downtown to buy some more coffee. i brought my camera with me, as i try to do every day. this particular day the weather was exceptional - especially for norway, all things considered. there were a lot of people out and about and i thought i'd hang around there for a few minutes in the middle of downtown oslo at a place called 'egertorget' - i was out getting coffee anyway. egertorget is right smack in the middle of the city and also, conveniently in the middle of the city's broadway of sorts - karl johans gate. if you look in one direction you'll see the kings palace and if you look in the other you'll (after walking a bit) see the old train-station-come-shopping-mall.

what's cool about egertorget is that all kinds of people pass through there, hang out there, shop there, perform there...where there's people there's action...and opportunities for some photography. especially street photography.

band on the run

now - shooting street photography in oslo, or in norway for that matter, is kind of tricky. yeah - the kids don't mind as much but my generation and older - they see a camera, they run and hide. seriously. they act like you're holding a gun to their head threatning to shoot their loved ones. not kidding (wish i was).

so the trick is - bring your stealthy camera setup, act as normally as possible, be nice, don't act like you're james bond on a super secret mission and just hang out. let the pictures present themselves to you.

where the wild things are

i'm no expert at shooting street photography, but i'm learning and i'm loving every step of the way. i've been watching people like chris weeks and of course legends like henri cartier bresson and really connecting with the concept of trying to capture moments. those fleeting moments that happen and disappear...and believe me - they happen all the time and they disappear as fast as they happen. you really have to focus - at least i have to pull myself together ;) - in order to anticipate the moments and be ready to capture them without being spotted or intrude upon what's going on. i get spotted sometimes, though, for sure. i'm not all stealth yet...working on it, working on it. shooting from 'the hip' as they say is a lot tougher than it looks. basically, shooting from the hip means you're not holding the camera up to your eye, you measure the distance to your subject(s) using the rangefinder on the lens, dial in the settings on your camera manually (yes, manually) and then work within the preset zone you've chosen for shooting in. having a leica - analog (yay) or digital (yay but $$$) are ace for this thing. you can also use a zeiss icon or a voigtländer bessa. they do the trick although their not built like a leica nor do they inspire you like a leica. ;) yes. i'm biased.

fresh air

i hope you enjoy these images and please tell me if any of them is more pleasing to your eyes than others...maybe you'd even like to tell me why you might find them pleasing? interaction, my friends. interaction. ;) oh and the LIKE-button? press it, baby, press it...share the love with your friends.

timeless

staring at the suntrippin'

blanksthis last image has me conflicted for several reasons. first of all - i feel images of homeless people are a bit 'cheap'. as a group they're 'easy targets' and it's important not to take advantage of the position these human beings find themselves in. then there's how we as an audience react to photographs of homeless people. they often make us feel a certain way and it's almost always got nothing to do with the photograph but the condition of the person in the picture. again, i'm conflicted as to posting this image. still - the look he gave me really stuck with me. this image moves me because it almost felt as though he surrendered to the camera. that's the only way i can describe the feeling this image gives me. if you see this guy - make sure you take care of him. give him a few bucks for food and drinks. he's been roaming the streets of oslo for as far back as i can remember. this is a really tough guy, but his eyes no longer have the spark they used to have.

may the force be with you - always.

-morgan-