“Our mission is to salute the achievements of the world’s finest photographers, to discover new and emerging talent, and to promote the appreciation of photography.” IPA ~ int’l photography awards ~
IPA (International Photography Awards) creates one of the most ambitious and comprehensive competitions in the photography world today, conducting an annual competition for professional, non-professional, and student photographers on a global scale.
On September 30, 2014 the International Photography Awards competition (IPA) announced Category Winners of 2014 Competition!
“This year, IPA received over 27000 submissions from 104 countries across the globe and is pleased to declare that Jenny Jacobsson was awarded Honorable Mention in a Advertising – Fashion Category in the 2014 International Photography Awards (IPA) Competition for the winning entry ‘The space that is and isn’t – I’.”
Selection from the series The space that is and isn’t
Feature and interview for Kamera & Bild – PORTRAIT SPECIAL
“PORTRAITS IN ANOTHER WORLD Jenny Jacobsson swapped a career as a DNA analyst to one as a portrait photographer. But she shoots no ordinary portraits. Instead her images holds stories and dreams that have been developed in close cooperation with the person being portrayed. The result is often not just an image but also a friendship.”
I’m so thrilled to see this wonderful and comprehensive article about me and my photographic work in KAMERA & BILD, one of, if not the, biggest photography magazines in Sweden. It is released today in every well-stocked store with magazine.
This issue’s theme is Portraits, and is focusing on what makes a portrait good, how to think as a photographer when creating it, and gives tips about how to develop yourself together with your portrait images. I’m honored to be one of the professionals they asked to give my point of view.
The interview was done last month by reporter Ola Jacobsen and I want to give a shout out to Ola for such a nice collab! Above is the headline and introductory of the article.
Published in ‘BEST OF THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHERS 2014’ book by One Eyeland
Here it is, the golden book. Shining and glittering on my desktop this morning and I’m happy to say I’m published in “Best of the best photographers 2014”. As they state themselves, it contains the finest images in One Eyeland of 2014, chiseled from a raw material of over 107 000 photographs down to 191… And I’m in there. I take off my hat, and bow.
“We chase photographers from seven corners of the world. We tempt them, taunt them, badger them and sweet talk them into sharing their dearest images with us. Applying a ruthless filter called ‘exacting standards’, we then handpick the ‘Best of the Best Photographers’. The One Eyeland Book Volume 4 is an inspiring compilation of this crème de la crème. Melted from a mighty corpus of 107 000 uploaded pictures, and forged from a staggering shortlist of 24 500 images, the golden collection is a showcase of 191 scintillating photographs worthy of the yellow metal.” Sharad Haksar, Founder of One Eyeland
It’s “not just a book, it’s a collector’s item” and if you want to buy the book you can get hold of it here. But a good alternative is of course to check out the e-version here.
Do you remember the incredibly popular movie (and book) “Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Cafe)”? I certainly do since it was one of my favorite movies growing up and the incredible story about friendship and strong women has always had a special place in my heart.
“The american author Fannie Flagg recently released a new book called “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion” and when the Italian publishing house Rizzoli Publications asked me if I wanted my image to be the book cover for the Italian version, I jumped up and down out of excitement!“
The cover image is one of the portraits from my series ‘Parallels‘. A big part of my work process is the inspiration that I draw from a particular location. Passing by this old gas station made my heart jump and thump and this little story evolved in my mind. I just had to make this shot! Bringing a 50’s inspired dress of mine I went back there with Andreas as assistant and after half an hour of shooting, and lots of cars passing by real close (as always I wonder what they thought…), this retro fashion inspired shot was done.
This image is proof that if you get that special feeling in your gut for a place, don’t hesitate to go at it. I’m happy to say that this image is one of the most appreciated as an art print from me. If you are interested or curious about getting this image or any other, check out my Prints section on my website and don’t hesitate to contact me.
Want to read the book? Go here if you want to buy it on Amazon.com in Italian, or if you want it in English (not my cover).
5 essential questions as photographers – Artist talk at Fotoskolan Göteborg
I was invited to do an artist talk at Photography School Gothenburg (Fotoskolan Göteborg) yesterday and together we wrote down answers to five questions. When working and living as a photographer sometimes it can be difficult to try to stay true to your own visions and keep your creative pride, thinking that you need to create something else because you feel pressured to. I strongly believe that if you are not true to your own creative vision and pride, you will soon start to resent the work that you used to absolutely love. And also, I’m a firm believer that as long as YOU love what you create, there will be lots of others out there that do as well.
“To remind ourselves what we actually love about photography, and also to keep pushing ourselves to do even better, be even better, we ask ourselves these questions. Questions that we can go back to and rethink over the years, in constant evolution, to move forward, but still remind ourselves of where our true love for photography once started and what our core values are for the images we create.“
WHAT MADE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH PHOTOGRAPHY? | Remind yourself of that magic moment, or those magic images, that ones pushed you to start shooting.
THINK OF 3 THINGS THAT YOU LOVE IN AN IMAGE | Try to as often as possible incorporate those 3 things in your own images, to keep your voice and to create consistancy in your work. May it be a color, a subject, a location, an emotion, a genre…
IF YOU HAD NO LIMITATIONS, WHAT WOULD YOU PHOTOGRAPH? | If money or relying on others were no issue, what would you create? Is there anything you can do, right now, that can make you go out and shoot something similar, or even more awesome?
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BETTER AT/STRENGHTEN YOUR PORTFOLIO WITH? | As photographers we need to constantly evolve and push ourselves. Right now, what can you do to evolve?
AS A PHOTOGRAPHER, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR DAYS DOING? | Working as a photographer, we do not only pick up our cameras and photograph all day long. We need a focus as a business and spend our days creating more than photographs. For you, do you want to be hired by a company, sell prints, do exhibitions, do assignments, write a book, work for a magazine, teach…?
MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING
Conceptual imaginative portraiture truly makes my heart beat. If it does the same for you, and you want to learn more about creating it, visit my blog category Educational to find out more.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HIRING ME AS A SPEAKER, FEEL FREE TO SEND ME A MESSAGE!…
INSPIRATION FOR IMAGE CREATORS – Photographer Rosie Hardy
As a photographer, or any image maker, you can choose to sit around waiting for inspiration to pop up by itself. Personally, I’m a firm believer that feeling inspired is a state of mind you can teach yourself to find when you need it. So, what can we do to get started? I’m gathering and sharing my methods and favorite creators as a resource to help keeping our inspirational juices flowing. And I invite you along for this series of “INSPIRATION FOR IMAGE CREATORS”!
Every photographer has a beginning. A story of how it all started. Maybe something happened that made you pick up the camera for the first time to capture it, something might have inspired you so much that you want to create something similar, or there can be tons of reasons why you start to be appealed by this amazing art form.
For me it was the first time when I came upon Flickr Explore and from there when I found the fantastic work of photographer Rosie Hardy. There was this girl, looking at me through my screen, and she was within another world. There was so much that caught me, the illusionary settings, the well balanced moods, the creative playfullness, that all got me to continue looking through that photostream. Again and again. And I had found my first photographer that truly inspired me and made me pick up my own camera.
Let Rosie inspire you as well! Have a joyful time going through her Flickr or visit her website.
Following inspiration overseas – Rosie Hardy workshop
When I first bought my DSLR (and we solemnly named it Cameron…) I was intrigued by what I could create with it. And I was amazed of what a difference the change from compact did to my photos. Out of curiousity I visited the Flickr Explore page that I’d heard would be a great source for looking at what others create with their cameras. It took me about 10 minutes of browsing, and then I stumbled upon it. There was this girl, looking at me through my screen, and she was within another world. There was so much about this image that caught me, the illusionary setting, the well balanced mood, the creative playfullness, that all got me to continue looking through that photostream. What I had found was my first inspirational photographer. Her name is Rosie Hardy.
As I begun to develop my knowledge within the art form and started up projects to move forward, I discovered many talented photographers out there that impressed and inspired. But I tended to always find my way back to Rosie’s work, noticing that it always gave me a huge boost of inspiration. Watching her improve with every piece she created was fascinating and pushed me to try to improve myself.
And then, last summer, a wonderful opportunity appeared. Rosie put up workshops in London! How could I miss this chance to meet one of my fav photographers in person, and to get some inside tips on how she manages to create her own unique little worlds? Of course, I couldn’t!
The day started with meeting up with Rosie at the cosy studio rented for us. Sitting down on a cool loft, with a variety of sofas and armchairs, all workshopers introduced themselves to get to know each other better.
Rosie continued to tell a bit more about herself, giving us some insights into what has pushed her and what she had done to continue growing as a photographer. Showing us her portfolio Rosie gave us tips and tricks on how she had been performing the shots and described her photography techniques while also answering a huge amount of questions being thrown her way.
After a great talk we went down in the studio to get into action. We were lucky to have the wonderful model Nhuc Tran for the day. Dressed in a marvelous sequin dress, we had no idea what kind of a messy state we soon would be putting her in… Rosie started off by going through how she would perform the shot she had in mind.
Rosie discussed with Nhuc how she wanted her to pose to get the shot and also, and very importantly in this case, how to throw the flour around 😉
Thereafter it was the workshopers turn. At a personal 1 on 1 time with Rosie everybody got their turns to create their own shot in mind with Nhuc. She and Rosie really worked hard with the flour, throwing it absolutely everywhere to create in a lot of the cases a very fairytale feeling of smoke and mystic.
I must say… I’m truly impressed with what an intensity and acceptance Nhuc covered herself and everything around her in flour. And oh my, what a mess we created!
After the big flour fight we got another chance to create a completely different kind of shot with Nhuc posing on a sofa, keeping her feet on a huge cupcake. Although, there were of course no huge cupcake, but instead we used a bin to be in the place of the cupcake, later on shooting a naturally sized cupcake, and then later on in post-processing integrating the cupcake into the place of the bin. Clever!
After the shoots we had a post-processing session, viewing Rosie’s workflow on her computer via a projector while she described what she did, and why she did it. Thereafter, we all went to the local pub, had well deserved drinks, and finished off a wonderful day with lots of laughs, great business tips from Rosie, and also some heartfelt moments with stories from both Rosie’s life and our own.
I flew back home to Sweden the day after the workshop, completely filled with new ideas, wonderful memories, new acquaintances, and most importantly of all, a big bucket of inspiration. And if there was something I’d learned at the workshop, it was that to get the perfect shot, sometimes you just will have to really throw yourself into it….
For more shots and Rosie’s description of the day visit her blog!
Below is my image from my session with Nhuc. I wanted to create a dramatic image, contrasting with the beauty of the dress and to go in the opposite direction than the fairytale effect of the flour/smoke. The rest of the interpretation, is up to you guys.
