You are visiting a conceptual photographer and digital artist, specializing in fashion, portrait, and commercial photography. I love to create narrative, expressive and emotional imagery that make people feel that the impossible is possible. I'm an image constructor, meticulously crafting all details to often form realistic surrealism.
At the age of 31 I completely changed my life. I had spent 10 years within the academic world, getting a Master of Science within neurobiology and working at a DNA analysis company, when I decided to follow my heart and passion instead. I left my old career behind, and embraced the world of imagery by attending school for Professional Photography (Fotoskolan Göteborg). And I've never looked back.
I have a never-ending urge to come up with and tell stories through my photographs and am certainly drawn to cinematic imagery. I often get highly inspired by the location itself when building alternative stories to sceneries that goes hand-in-hand with the concept and styling. Growing up on the Swedish countryside open landscapes, woods, and nature were always present and I've always loved the magic of a wild scenery. Also, my mind has always flourished inside great novels or being enchanted by movies. It is now obvious that my artwork is highly inspired by my childhood experiences, making me romanticize and dramatize my environment and put fantasies into the frame. The landscape is a returning location for my stories and I want to capture the natural beauty of a place but with my own twist. I like to highlight the hidden charm of an, at first sight, ordinary place.
I am currently working as a freelance photographer, available for commissions and assignments. Also, I am continuously shooting my fine-art series "Parallels". I reside in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden, with my husband and graphic designer Andreas. I work on location without boundaries.
April 2011. Our so well planned 2.5 week trip to Japan was of course cancelled due to the horrible tragedy that hit the east coast there a few weeks earlier. So… what emergency trip could we come up with on such short notice… during spring… not so far away… for relaxing but still a lot of fun… OF COURSE! Why not go to Paris??
Paris delivered everything you can imagine. Romance (well, of course, since I was there with Andreas), sunny days and warm evenings, trees in bloom, lots and lots of coffee at cosy cafés, great architecture, a cultural boost, wonderful food… I could go on and on. But I think I’ll show you instead!
In January 2011 me and Andreas packed our bags and took off to England for a short vacation. My personal aim for the weekend was to attend the absolutely terrific workshop by Miss Aniela and Brooke Shaden in Eastbourne. While visiting England we had the wonderful opportunity to stay at my dear friend Hanna’s place in Richmond where she lives with Paddy, the sweetest man with the most tricky accent I’ve ever heard ;-).
Richmond was a really neat an gorgeous part of London and I got the feeling that Hanna, who recently moved there from Sweden, really liked it there. And I can understand why.
Even though it was winter and freezing here in Gothenburg, the sun was beaming and spring was in the air. Strolling around Richmond was a really lovely moment in life, a welcomed pause from the ordinary life’s chores back home. Most impressed I was by the inhabitants of Richmond. Especially the fella´ below that I had the opportunity to get acquainted with, totally unexpected in the big city of London. Thank you, mr Bird, for a memorable minute.
MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING!
From one great town to another! Check out the trip me and my class at photography school did to the awesome capital of Germany, Berlin, The City of Artist!
First of all it’s been the coldest start of a winter I’ve experienced since I moved to Gothenburg/Göteborg. With weeks of -10°C (already in November) I lay in my bed at night thinking about maaaybe putting on a summer’s dress and make good use of that cool tree a few blocks away… but then again… naaaah… let’s do that when the weather gets warmer… AND when there is a greater amount of snow. AND when both those things happen on a weekend so that I’m off work and can actually perform the shot in daylight. Yeah, right, like that combo was gonna happen any time soon.
“This weekend, it did.”
-1°C and two days of snowing. Off I went! Can’t let myself down now can I. This time I had my beloved Andreas with me as an assistant. Like he said: “How could I ever miss an opportunity like this, to watch you walk around barefooted in snow with a dress on in December, and with a chance that someone will see you!?” Aaaww he is nothing but helpful.
So trudging through knee high snow to get to the tree, setting up the equipment and trying not to get the tripod to fall over and drown my camera in wet snow, waiting for some curious people to walk away (no way I’m starting with them there), taking off my warm comfy clothes behind the tree hoping no new people would come by, climbing the tree in a pink and really short dress and big fluffy winter boots, placing my behind on a big snow covered branch and ooooooh my little hiney that was cold!!!!!! Quickly pulling off the fluffy boots and placing them behind the trunk, posing crazily to quickly get a behind-the-scenes-photo and then WHAM. Seriousness. Pose. Pose. Pose. Move flowers around. Pose. Pose. Flip the hair around. Pose. No, not like that, stretch the toes. Pose. Pose. Tilt head the other way. Pose. Done. Quickly pulling on boots again and crazy out of happiness getting stuck on another behind-the-scenes-shot. Jumping down from tree and get dressed quicker than Superman. And then I get the good news that another couple had very intensely been studying us from the road….
Ah, well *shrug*. That’s another day in the life of a “52 weeks” photographer 🙂
And so it was time to answer the next question from my dear readers, and this one is from the delightful Anders Bergkvist, who wrote me a comment in You ask, I tell – The Force of Nature where he wondered “How did you create the levitating impression of your first Flickr Explore image?”(above).
THE PROBLEM
If you’ve ever tried to make a proper jump you probably noticed that it’s difficult to get some distance from the ground at the same time making it look relaxed and without pulling your face. Unless you are perhaps a trained dancer or gymnast. And trust me… I’m certainly not…
LEVITATION AND MONTAGES
Levitation can of course be created in several ways. Like in all photography a good goal to create a realistic effect is to always capture as much as you can in camera, and try to avoid unnecessary manipulation. Since our mind and eyes are really good at noticing if something fishy is going on and if light and shadows don’t add up, it’s quite hard to put a montage together and there are a lot of things to be considered (more about that in a future post).
If I had been graceful enough (and believe me, I’m not) I would have performed this little jump and at the same time managed to pose and turn my torso slightly to create the body shape I was after. I tried, but I can assure you you wouldn’t be pleased with the result.
IMAGES NEEDED TO BE SHOT
Although for this shot I was a bit lucky, or at least I made it quite easy for myself since I didn’t want to levitate beyond belief. I just wanted to take off a little from the ground, like I was floating away. So I needed to shoot images with:
1) stretched legs and pointed toes
2) the shadow on the ground created by the jump
3) the upper body, relaxed and twisted the way I wanted with the face also relaxed and eyes on the ground
PHOTOSHOP PROCESS
After having shot two kinds of shots, one where I took a little jump trying to create good legs, and one kind where I was happy with my upper body, I opened my files in Photoshop. The two images that I’d chosen was put in two different layers on top of each other. Since the upper body layer needed to be placed a bit higher to match my waist, I moved this layer upwards until it fit (you can see how much I moved it in the 2nd image below if you look closely, on the line between the floor and the wall).
When this was done, I hid the “bad legs” from the upper body layer by painting black in my layermask, revealing the jumping legs from the layer below. So that you can this see better, in the 3rd image below I lowered the opacity of the upper body layer so that you can to see the two images together at once (I look a bit like a ghost).
To finish there were a few details that needed to be clone stamped or patched to make everything seemless in the dress, but that was about it for the levitation effect.
So by adding two or more different images into one, you can create the most incredible effects. Give it a try and have some fun with it!
Every now and then I get questions from my beloved blog followers, Flickr contacts, and/or friends about how I did something, why I did another thing, what my inspiration was, if I got caught doing that incredibly embarrasing thing… And I now think it’s time to start my You ask, I tell! And it’s just as simple as it sounds. You ask. And I will tell. Hopefully not too many embarrasing things 🙂
First up is a question I got from Hanna Jakobsson, the amazingly charming author of the blog Fröken Jakobssons Vänner, who wonders
“What did you do with the leaves in the tree image?”
And I’m pretty sure she is referring to The Force of Nature and how I processed the image to create the effect of the tree.
To leave an exact description of how I edited the tree would make this post far too long and I don’t want to bore you to death. It involved a lot of blurring, curves, levels, saturation changes, brushing, masking, and a few textures. And since I’m all about the visual, I’ve decided to show the process in 16 images.
The difference may be hard to see between some of the images (especially since they are quite small), but it’s there. It might be e.g. the color or saturation of the leaves, the color of different parts of the trunk, or a vignette. And since this image is not only about the tree I included the entire process, also showing the processing of the girl (me). Also, take a look atTo surrender to the Force of Nature for a Behind the Scenes of the same image.
And so it was time once more. Getting a year older. Some people say they no longer care for birthdays since they are now “so oooold”. Now THAT does not apply to me!! Well.. maybe the “so old” part, but certainly not the caring part. I just love birthdays! And my own is not exception. I’m told that I start talking about my birthday about a month in advance, not letting anybody miss that it’s coming up and behaving like a ten year old. Maybe I do, and I’m enjoying every little moment of it *giggle*. There is a Swedish saying, and it sure applies in this case, approximately like:
“You have as fun as you turn it in to”
So last weekend Andreas and I threw a party and thank you so much guys for coming and making it a fabulous time! It was a mixture of my and Andreas’s friends and you are all so adorable, kind, and fun! And on Sunday, “the big day”, I spent my birthday with an american brunch at Egg & Milk, a long autumn walk in the beaming sun and crisp fall air, and enjoying a gorgeous dinner, all in the company of my beloved Andreas. It was a beautiful day to remember, even when I turn 85 😉
As a celebration I created my latest Flickr self portrait, which appropriately is called In da club (see above). And I think you understand why. Creating it I certainly got my groove on, putting on some awesome music and shakin’ ma booty until I was scared the neighbours were gonna knock on my door.
And after all that fun I had to be a bit more serious and place out the rest of the disco balls (unfortunately I only had one that I had to turn into several) that were going to be in the main image. It didn’t take that long actually. The long part was the post processing. But I just thought about the birthday and I did it with a happy face 🙂
To end this post I just would like to say A very happy birthday to the people out there having their birthdays today! I hope you all will have a wonderful time.
PS. I got a new brain with a memory from Andreas as a birthday present, and some power to go with it.
Really, I did!
He had stuffed a plastic brain with a 16 GB memory card and a new battery for my camera 🙂
“Sometimes you find the most remarkable creations out in the wild. And sometimes they look like something you’ve only seen in the movies.”
One summer’s day not that long ago I took my usual walk around my neighbourhood. When passing by a group of trees that I’ve always admired the branches of, being a bit unusual hanging down like vines, I all of a sudden decided to take a look if I could use them in any of my shots. And as I walked through them like passing green curtains, this remarkable tree appeared. With a huge trunk and gnarled branches it reminded me of a tree from a fantasy movie, and when I saw that it had a strange part of the stem stretching out like a long funnel I knew I was hooked.
“I got a flash from a scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when the Whomping Willow tries to drag Harry and friends down under it, and decided that I had to surrender to the force of nature. The tree funnel just had to suck me in…”
Although it was interestingly big for being a tree funnel, it didn’t really seem big enough for me to really fit in it. And also, I must admit that the content of the hole didn’t look inviting. At all. So after measuring it in my head and balancing pros and cons, I decided NOT to get my bare legs all muddy, scratched and yucky. And not to mention getting in contact with the rich habitat of insects living in there. With that decision I also had appointed myself to several hours more behind the computer for post-processing. But that would be worth it.
The first time I was there I was wearing a white dress. I knew it was going to get really dirty taking the shot, but I decided I didn’t care. Crawling around the stem trying to find the right pose, it sure did. I took some shots (or a lot) with my remote and headed back home.
Going through the shots later on I wasn’t happy with the light, it was far too bright in spots, creating blown out areas on my arms and hands. Meaning that I had to walk there again a few days later to redo the whole thing.
Then it took me quite some time cutting myself out correctly in Photoshop. Then I just moved the cutout into the right position, decreased the size of myself a bit to make it look more realistic and so that I didn’t look like a giant placed in front of the hole, and melted the images together.
And voilá! Nature won 🙂
The force of nature
Update November 6th 2010: The processing of this image is also covered within the Educational category. Go have a look!
I’m sure that every photographer comes to moments when the inspiration is lacking. The will is there, but no ideas come to mind. For me, and hopefully a great tip to you, the excellency of the show So You Think You Can Dance is a solution to a drought of ideas. I’m romantically involved with the show. I jump on my bed of excitement when it starts, and I sob when it’s over. Not only is it sheer entertainment. The format, the people, the stories that the art form of dance can portray, the emotions that the work of the body can stir up… everything works together to make it my favorite series.
And when you are in contact with so much emotion, you can’t help your thoughts to start rolling. Combined with the perfection of the choreographies as well as the visuality of the pieces… POP! There is an idea for a shot. POP! There, I see another scenery in front of me for my next photo session. And it keeps going. Give it a try and be inspired by everything from the glitter and joy of Bollywood, the spice and steam in salsa, the movements and grace of contemporary, the creativity and funk of hip hop…
Take a moment to enjoy this piece performed by the full crew in episode 19, season 7. “Every little thing she does is magic” by Sting.
Welcome to my very first Behind the Scenes! “Broken Wings” derives from a summer’s day when I was taking a walk and my eyes got caught on these semi-decomposed bird wings among the leaves on the ground. And my instinct was of course that I had to wear them! Even though they would only fit a person 40 cm tall…
But since I’m a very stubborn girl I resisted the terrible stench reeking out from them, poked sticks under the “armpits” of the post-bird, and walked around the forest to find a good location.
Luckily it didn’t take long before I ran into this tree stump. The stump was big enough to fit me in it and also it provided a good spot for a levitation trick. Even though the wings were broken I had to at least try to fly with them.
Below, I’ll take you through both the SHOOTING PROCESS and the PHOTOSHOP PROCESS
SHOOTING PROCESS
So I needed three shots to be able to create a girl with wings trying to fly from a tree stump.
1) THE UPPER BODY AND ARMS I put my camera on my tripod, climbed the stump and flung around it in different positions, shooting myself using my Canon RC-1 wireless remote control. Climbed back down, ran to the camera to check on the poses and angles, and ran back to the stump to create better ones. This kept on until I felt like I had been through a tough yoga session and I had a shot I was happy with.
2) THE LEGS To create that levitation look I needed to lift my legs off the stump, not touching it at all with my legs. So back up on the stump I let myself into the same position as in the shot I had chosen, held my body up with my arms and released the legs.
3) THE WINGS were a lot trickier since they were so small (and also very fragile and risked of falling apart any second). Still having the wings on sticks, I first tried to get the correct perspective by putting the wings in the proper place behind the stump with the aim to increase their size later on. Although, I wasn’t happy with the details so instead I tried to lift them in front of and close to the camera. For this part it is very important to keep the same focal length even if the subject is moved around. I was happy with these images and I was done shooting.
“Let me make a note that all this was going on with people walking by… looking like they were going to call the police for them to come get that crazy bird woman running around in the woods with wings, looking like she would need a strait-jacket…“
PHOTOSHOP PROCESS
In Photoshop I combined the two images of the girl in the forest by using the first shot as a main layer, masking over “the wrong legs” and letting through the levitated legs from underneath with some modifications.
After that I cut out one wing at a time, pasted them on the forest image, corrected their positions and angles and let the arms and body of the girl in front of the wings.
For me the story is sad and moody, so I wanted the tone and color of the final image to convey that feeling. I worked with blues and darks and decreasing the yellow in the greens. Some more tweaking and adjustments and VOILÀ!
BROKEN WINGS
A lot of work, full of aches, and marked as a crazy bird woman, but at least I got to wear a dead bird’s wings…
I feel like I’ve been reborn. The last year or so has been life changing, and it feels like each day I’m taking new big fresh breaths of life. Each of them I treasure, and I realize that I’ve started to have other perspectives of my presence on mother earth. And I feel the urge to put some (yeah yeah okey… a LOT) of them through the lens. I want to tell stories. Mine. Yours. The stranger’s with the crooked nose and the Russian accent by the counter at the French café. The fluffy caterpillar’s big adventure on its way through the forest of dandelions. Each fascinating story that I am lucky enough to be a spectator of.
I hope to share my stories with you. I also wish to put other aspects to them in this forum. I will use my Flickr and my website jennyjacobsson.com for my more public work, and this blog to comment and give you my views of what I create so that you know what is going on inside this whimsical head of mine. Also, I would like to share some behind-the-scenes footage to show “how I did it”, mostly for the fun of it but it would be an extra treat if it in any way would be helpful for others in their own work. Hey, I might even throw in some images from what is going on in my personal life as well. I have the optimal model victim here at home…. (don’t tell him yet 😉 ).
I stand before this blog as standing in front of the ocean. It’s big. It will surely be stormy. It will not be blue though. It’s even a bit scary. And it feels like freedom, like a fresh breeze of salty air and hundreds of new fragrances, like the huge space is there to be explored if I just jump into the boat and sail away.
