dreads – JENNY JACOBSSON

‘SHE WALKS WITH COLOURS’ – Changing summer into autumn

Posted on March 27, 2014January 9, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

‘SHE WALKS WITH COLOURS’ – Changing summer into autumn

“When Rania showed me the dress I knew instantly where to shoot her portrait. I had been walking by this forest path so many times, loving it but knowing that this place required a medieval or fantasy theme. And oh how that theme suits Rania.“

The dress have been in Rania’s possession for quite some time and it means something special. We had been talking about capturing a story for her with her dress for a while and suddenly we felt a sense of urgency. Why wait and not take the opportunity to capture the memory of a beloved garment, representing a special time in life that might never come back?

Also, Rania’s hair is a true symbol of this time, right now. Her dreadlocks feel so natural with her and her personality, and hair can truly be a strong expression of identity. Who knows what will happen. Some day the dreads and the dress will be gone. Why not immortalize them now and keep the memory of this time intact forever?

“The story took a while to develop, but when finalized, it feels so right, natural and obvious. Rania is a true autumn lover. Her whole appearance goes hand in hand with that wonderful time of year. And when that time appears, she truly shines.”

I still can’t help but get a huge grin on my face when thinking about the discussion we had when Rania almost… aaaaalmost… convinced me that autumn IS better than summer. And oh, I love my summer time…

So the hair, the dress, the location, the theme, the season, it all came together. Rania, with an essence of nature, of warm tones, of heart and spirit and earthiness. A person who spreads warmth and colour to everyone around her. Here it is. ‘She walks with colours’.

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING
Get Behind the Scenes of the making of the ‘The storm starter’, another fantastical portrait of Rania where her hair truly is the focus of the story…

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IF YOU LIKED HER PORTRAIT, GIVE RANIA SOME LOVE ON FACEBOOK!

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Behind the Scenes – ‘THE STORM STARTER’

Posted on December 10, 2013January 9, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

Behind the Scenes – ‘THE STORM STARTER’

A late summers day I gathered a fantastic team to make an image for my conceptual portrait series ‘Parallels’. I had been inspired by Rania’s (previous studio portrait) dreadlocks and her dark features for some time…

“…I wanted to create a portrait alluding to greek mythology characters and their features, like Medusa and her hair and the sirens and their manipulative powers. Being from the windy southwestern parts of Sweden the image was created on the concept of the ocean and storm, and the power to control it.“

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Martina got the task of keeping Rania’s natural beauty but at the same time turn her into a vicious sea creature. I had the task of making Ranias dreads stand up like they were floating and moving by her powers. To do this I needed to twist steel wires round every one of her approx. 40 dreadlocks and then sew sewing threads to the tips that we later connected to a wire ring crafted by Andreas.

onceptual, portrait, make up, Medusa, siren, dreads, dreadlocks, tentacles, Göteborg, Rania Rönntoft, mythology

onceptual, hair, portrait, make up, Medusa, siren, dreads, dreadlocks, tentacles, Göteborg, Rania Rönntoft, mythology

We attached the wire ring to a long stick that Andreas used to lift up the dreadlocks above Rania’s head. Thank you so much Andreas, for patiently performing the odd task of standing out in the cold wind holding a stick attached to hair.

onceptual, portrait, hair, Medusa, siren, dreads, dreadlocks, tentacles, Göteborg, Rania Rönntoft, mythology

A huge thank you to you Rania for your radiantly positive attitude, even when getting wet and cold. And to Martina for your creative vision and also shooting BtS footage. We sure had a fun time, fighting against the sunset!

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING
If you enjoy the Behind the Scenes videos, you should take a look at this freeeeeezing one…

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IF YOU LIKED HER PORTRAIT, GIVE RANIA SOME LOVE ON FACEBOOK!

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING

Studio workshop

Posted on November 22, 2011February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

Studio workshop

The portrait “Rania” above I created in a photo studio project a few weeks into our first term at Fotoskolan i Göteborg. It began with a studio workshop at DDR GBG that are run by Magnus Cimmerbeck and Magnus Johansson here in Göteborg (Gothenburg). Magnus & Magnus are two awesome and talented dudes who were nothing but nice, fun, and helpful and they both made the day a total blast. Starting with several cups of coffee, buns and cakes, we had a long and good discussion about the lives of photographers, how to make it in a tough business, and M&M gave us tips and tricks and their point of view…

We were amazed by their studio/office space and I must say that it was close to exactly how I would like it myself… Also, we got the opportunity to practice our studio skills with a lot of good help from M&M.

We were given a task to choose an image that we found interesting and that was shot in a studio, and later in the school studio try to replicate the lighting that were used in that shot by shooting a model of our choice. I knew straight away that I wanted to photograph my classmate Rania who is not only an awesome girl but also has an amazing look that I find very interesting. And she chose to shoot me, and if you want to have a look at the result here it is over at her blog: “Jenny” and also at “Jenny again”. We had lots of fun in the studio. Until we managed to break one of the lamps…

A week later M&M came to our school to review what we had done and to discuss our work, comparing the original photo with our own version. Another great day with a lot of good laughs.

Johan Ekström who is awesome at lighting and photoshop had created a shot that caused the class to break out in chattering and turbulence and everyone wanted to study the photo up close.

The absolute favorite of mine was done by my classmate Helena below who recreated one of the famous portraits of Tyra Banks from Italian Vogue, with another classmate as a model… a guy called Morten. And she had done it so beautifully. I fell in love with the portrait straight away. Click the image to see it bigger.

Kudos to Magnus & Magnus for giving so much of their knowledge and making the studio workshop so much fun. Check out their work at DDR GBG.

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING
If you like this portrait of Rania with her gorgeous dreads, don’t miss the conceptual portrait ‘She walks with colours’ where Rania lets them out and truly got to be in her true element in this medieval/fantasy image!

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