julie interviews kristina

we're back after our summer hiatus! new design, new ideas, fresh start!

I'm sure you've seen that julie has done an interview series on her blog, and we decided to start up here with a spin-off of that. so, below you can read julie's interview with me, and in a couple of days you'll get my interview with julie. 

polaroid self-portrait
I really don't like taking self-portraits, but you have to challenge yourself, right?

1.  what do you think it is that makes taking people photos so difficult?
for me, I think it has to do with being seen. when you take a photo of a person, they often look back at you and that can make me very self-conscious.

2.  if you had to choose only ONE lens and all of the others would (odin forbid) disappear, which one would it be?
I think it would have to be something like the one I use most: a 28-75 mm zoom lense with a fixed aperture of 2.8. but instead of the cheaper tamron lense I've got, I would go for nikon's own 24-70 mm; if I was only to buy one lenes I could splurge on that one, right?

3.  where would be your dream location to take a photo walk?
that's a tough one! I really like cityscapes - new york really is a dream for photographers. but it would also be interesting to go somewhere remote and less seen, like antarctica or the shetlands. oh, and new zealand looks like it has an amazing landscape.

4.  film or digital?
both, definitely! if I had to choose to only use one though, I would have to choose digital. I love the possibility of taking many photos without having to think about the cost, which is one of the major drawbacks of analogue photography.

5.  do you struggle with "the processing" issue? is it cheating or art?
yes, I do; I think about it a lot and I blogged about it a few months ago too. there are different ways to look at it: one way is to decide that whatever the camera produces without post-processing is "the truth", and that shouldn't be altered. another way to look at it is to view the image file from the camera as raw material, and the objective is to make the photo look as the scene looked when the photo was taken. yet another way to treat the issue is to try to create a aesthetically pleasing photo, even if that means altering colours, removing disturbing objects etc. the key point for me is that the way my eye captures a scene is not the same way a camera does it, and therefore there really is no "true" image.

6.  is using someone else's presets just a lack of originality?
no, I don't think so. it's a great way to expand one's creativeness, and get new ideas.

7.  your ultimate dream camera?
ah, cameras... surely you mean my dream digital camera, and my dream analogue camera? at least that's how I'll interpret the question... right, digital camera: I haven't owned or used a leica, but I would still go for the leica m9 which seems like a fabulous camera. although if someone offered me a nikon d3x I wouldn't turn it down! my dream analogue camera right now is a hasselblad 500 c/m, a medium format camera.

8.  do you think we should try to find a café (or two - one one each side of the sound?) that will hang some of our diptychs?
yes, I think that's a fantastic idea!

9.  what have you learned from the across ø/öresund photo project?
one of the things that I have learned is that taking photos to fit a theme can be both easy and extremely hard, and that it encourages me look at things differently.

10.  what's your best piece of advice for kickstarting stalled photo mojo?
force yourself to take photos. bring the camera, take photos even if you don't feel very inspired by what you see. suddenly there will be one photo that you sort of like, and that will remind you of why you like to take photos.