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Kåre Selvejer
Is a Danish amateur photographer working with both Large Format film cameras as well as digital cameras. He is an escapee from corporate life where he spent 30 years working in the wine business. Kåre is keen walker and loves to spend time with his camera along the coast and in the woods.
While my native country Denmark is often described as being “nice and green” it is my belief that few if any landscape photographers would ever describe it as a landscape photographer’s paradise.
Denmark is one of the most intensively exploited agricultural nations in the world, and with an absence of mountains, cliffs and rocks (save for the remote small island of Bornholm where small cliffs can be found), and an almost complete absence of wilderness, it is at times hard not to feel a bit envious of the possibilities available to landscape photographers in the U.K. Even our woodlands are plantations destined for production.
Travelling abroad is, of course an option, but it comes with a cost and as I am aware that I also have to reduce my carbon footprint, travelling has to be the exception rather than the rule.
Getting out with my camera is a necessity for me and while my main photographic passion is the landscape, I have over the years also developed a certain passion for shooting abandoned places (can be hard to find though), decay and rust to compensate for the lack of opportunities in the Danish landscape.
From time to time I do, however, end up in a creative rut. I do get out with my camera – important for both my wellbeing – but I often reach home without the camera ever leaving my camera bag. I have come to accept this and just enjoy the walk. As I walk, I often spend time wondering about new directions and possible new photographic opportunities.
For some time I have had a wish of making more abstract images, concentrating more on shapes, colours and my own emotional responses to the landscape rather than the subject itself. Since I was first exposed images made with ICM. I have found them very inspirational. I have on the other hand always felt the concept of I.C.M. to be beyond my normal comfort zone. Having shot transparencies with a large format camera since 2005 I have to the best of my ability tried to work in the systematic and rigorous way which is so essential for this type of photography. When I started to become serious about digital capture in 2015, I tried to transfer as many of the same techniques as possible and to keep my pace as slow as possible.
Getting out of one’s comfort zone, however, is often considered to be a good way of progressing. So around Christmas last year where we had a long spell of very wet, grey, dark and gloomy weather I decided that this was probably the best conditions I could have if I wanted to give image making with I.C.M. a “go”.
I feel decidedly uncomfortable shooting handheld, so I still opted to use my tripod. My shutter speeds in the woods were somewhere between 4 and 8 seconds at base ISO and F 16 (with I.C.M. there is no need to worry about diffraction), so this gave me plenty of time to rock the tripod slowly back and forth.
The four pictures are made on my first two outings. While being a completely new direction for my photography I feel quite happy with what I got. So, whenever I feel the conditions are right, I look forward to exploring further into this new and for me unknown territory.
