Photogrvphy Magazine presents the works of Roger Hansson, a Swedish born self taught nature and fine art photographer.
Says Roger: I started as a product photogrpher and later on moved to wedding photography and portraits with a smal studio until I changed direction and now only makes my own projects and exhibitions.
My interest in photography started early, my dad photographed pretty much and had his own darkroom. I was often there, fascinated to see the pictures appear on the photopaper. But I was not that interested that I began to shoot immediately. It took a while… film was expensive and we did not have so much money. They first years I got my camera I documented most friends and parties like many other teenagers. Photography then was down several years before I bought a new camera, and a client of mine was in a photo club and invited me to participate in a 12-hour photo-marathon. I won the overall which spurred me to continue.
I’ve had several different photographers for inspiration over the years. A photographer who made a huge impression is Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm I met him at a workshop in the photo club in early 90. Nowadays, I dont look so much at other photographers I rather seek inspiration in other artists such as Brittish artist Norman Acroyd.
Black and white photography is close to my heart, certainly because it was so I started one time. I have photographed a lot of projects in color but still think that black and white has a special feeling that is difficult to obtain in color photography. I look mostly at black and white pictures when I look at other people’s art.
My passion in photography is to approach to the art of painting, with different techniques, I work to get the pictures to look either painted or sketched.
My creative process begins as a thought, often I see the image in front of me and I usually go out to look for motives without knowing where to go. It often results in many long days in my car with few images at the end of the day. When I see the right motive, I’m working pretty quickly, I’m very sure to compose the image complet directly in the camera to avoid having to think about pruning afterwards. Nowadays, I have begun to shoot with film again with a Hasselblad 500 c/m and Mamyia c22 in the 6×6 format, which has resulted in that I crop images even in my digital camera in the same format using the display as i frame the picture.
I see the camera as a sketchbook, no filter or presets is used in post processing. I always try to make the most directly in the camera.
My work right now is to try to create pictures that does not seem like photography, like my graphic images which may have a sketched feeling to it. This is a project that will take quite a lot of time. Some of the images has been displayed in an exhibition in 2016 but the project as a whole will result in a larger exhibition and a book at the end of 2017.
Website: rogerhansson.se
