self portrait – JENNY JACOBSSON

‘THE PENDING STATE OF EXPECTING’

Posted on April 4, 2016January 20, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

‘THE PENDING STATE OF EXPECTING’

(01)

I’m writing this in a haze…

A haze from sleepiness because now I’m a day overdue, and my body and mind have been ready day and night for weeks, for the wonder growing inside me to enter into this world. A haze from marvel, worry, bliss, doubt, and hopefulness, all mixed up into one foggy existence about how it will all turn out. And when I look at this image, created (now what feels like so long ago) just a few of weeks after we got the big positive news that we were expecting, I realize we’re still in that pending state. It’s just a bit different.

“The big news came with an indescribable happiness. And an itch to see what the future would hold and an eagerness to make the very best of it all. Yet it took about 2 seconds before some sort of sense of protectiveness set in. And angst. And I started to wonder how to possibly move forward the best way, and what would lie ahead, especially when time went by sooo slowly. And if this all could possibly be true when it felt so utterly unreal. It was a bit like living and moving slowly forward in a dreamlike state. Being wide awake, but the world still feeling so surreal.”

This mix of feelings, both great and less enjoyable, made the head spin a bit and to me, who really likes control and to know what to expect from the future, it was a bit difficult to grasp. We talked a lot, me and Andreas, and we noticed that we shared very similar feelings. And that we knew that together we can always face anything and move forward no matter what lies ahead.

“And so one very early summer’s morning, some might call it night, I woke him up to go for a drive to our nearby lake to visualize and capture the feeling of this pending state of expecting. To always remember this incredibly love filled, confusing, and wonderful time of life.”

(02)

I’m still pending. Expecting.

Now at the other end of the same pregnancy, but in a very different physical state, I’m still pending. Expecting. Not knowing exactly how to move forward, and what will lie ahead. And I just have to realize it’s part of life.

And that I need to let go of that control and just trust that my body and mind will take care of it the way it’s meant to do. I, being a biologist academically, have to trust my thoughts telling me that my body was built to do this and it will probably work out alright. My mother did this 3 times. My grandmother Lilly did this 8 times, although unfortunately only 7 turned out truly well. And my great-grandmother did this no less than 12 times! That’s some heritage to carry.

And I surely will do my best to carry it well. And I truly hope that next time I’ll write you I will be more knowledgeable. And less pending. And certainly, a really happy mother.

conceptual portrait, Göteborg, pregnancy, mother, motherhood, maternity, couple, flight of birds, archipelago, ocean, pyjamas, baby — *BEHIND THE SCENE: Testing the remote.*

~Have you gone through something similar yourself? Feel free to write a comment below to share your thoughts and help each other out~ 🙂

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‘Forty Faces’ – Self Portraiture Art Exhibition at Sandell Gallery

Posted on July 16, 2015February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

‘Forty Faces’ – Self Portraiture Art Exhibition at Sandell Gallery

Last week the doors opened to Sandell Gallery and the exhibition »Forty Faces«, a fantastic collection exhibition with a motley crew of art pieces themed Self Portraiture. 40 artists, 40 self portraits, different media, and me and my ’The unveiling’ from series ‘Parallels‘ is one of them.

“Self-portrait is the only motif that has stood the test of time. Almost all artists in the last five hundred years have sooner or later chosen to paint his own face and his own body.”

Welcome!
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FORTY FACES
July 10 – 22, 2015
Sandell Gallery
Göteborg, Sweden
Curated by Christina Sandell
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PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

The opening on July 10th was jam-packed with loads of wonderful and enthusiastic art indulgers. Thank you for the wonderful conversations you guys! Here are some images from the event:

ENJOY THIS TEXT FROM THE EXHIBITION BOOK (in Swedish):

Ett självporträtt, en bild av sig själv.
En avbildning av sin själ.
Sitt yttersta och sitt innersta.
Att kunna berätta och blotta är en konst. Att framställa sig själv.
Det krävs mod och självinsikt.

Hur visar vi oss själva? Ett ansikte. Rätt upp och ner eller med ett
kommatecken däremellan. Vad är det som är just jag?
Kanske en symbol, ett uttryck eller ett par intensiva ögon – en
blick som säger allt. Eller allt annat utom det. En dansande bild på
dig på en äng. Något som visar energin.

Självporträtt, avbildningar, har funnits i alla tider. Några av
historiens mest kända konstverk är just självporträtt – Rembrandt,
Leonardo da Vinci och van Gogh.
I dagens läge är vi våra egna konstnärer. Vi skapar självporträtt
utan att kanske tänka på det.
Knäpper av ögonblick.
Avbildar oss under en förändring.
Exponerar oss på internet. »Jag ska bara ta en selfie.«
Bekanta och obekanta gör tummen upp och hjärtar våra ansikten.

I forty faces har 40 konstnärliga personer blottat sina själar.
Skapat och exponerat.
40 konstnärliga personer från olika delar av världen.
Med mod och självinsikt.

Text by Ronette Svensson

Welcome to ‘Forty Faces’ – Self Portraiture Art Exhibition at Sandell Gallery!

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Conceptual portrait in freezing winter – ‘THE SENTENCE’

Posted on October 22, 2013January 9, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

Conceptual portrait in freezing winter – ‘THE SENTENCE’

Above is a little Behind the Scenes video from the shooting of ‘The sentence’.

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Location | SÄLEN, SWEDEN
Assistant | ANDREAS JACOBSSON
Model | SELF PORTRAIT

Full screen size in my Portfolio
_________________

‘The sentence’ is part of my series ‘Parallels’ and was shot in Sälen, Sweden. We were there on a skiing holiday with my family, but being me I just couldn’t let this breathtaking landscape be out there without being photographed.

“The cold got me thinking about for how little time you would actually survive out there without any cover or extra warmth. And this story came to me about an entity, light as snow but with a deadly darkness, executing a sentence leading to certain death.“

It was oh so cold outside (about -15° Celsius) so to be standing still or to take off your protective clothing was not a nice experience. So the day before the shoot I planned the story carefully, making my doodle sketches with the composition, placement of the woman and in what direction she should be releasing her butterfly.

On the day of the shoot we set out to find the right location. I wasn’t completely happy with the first test shoot location so we went higher up on the mountain and found this desolate vast expanse of snow. The sun was shining while setting up, Andreas being very helpful in letting me know when I was at the planned position, but before I even got my protective clothes off the clear weather changed to overcast. And actually, I liked the mysterious feeling that was created in the shift. All the planning in the world can’t master the weather so instead I let the story form around what was provided.

I hope you enjoy the portrait!
X
Jenny

PS. I must say this hot chocolate and waffle treat was well deserved after getting back into a warm house!

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Post-processing a fairy tale

Posted on June 14, 2012February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

Post-processing a fairy tale

“The girl and the secret within” – This video is a Before & After as well as an accelerated showcase of my post-processing of several files to a finished conceptual image in Photoshop.

The world can be so much more than what first meets the eye…

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‘THE REFLECTION OF AUTUMN’

Posted on November 8, 2011January 9, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

‘THE REFLECTION OF AUTUMN’

Here are a few behind-the-scenes images from the making of “The Reflection of Autumn”.

October 30th… a cool autumn breeze rattles leaves fallen to the ground. The world is a mixture of red and yellow. A forest pool of water is quietly hiding secrets of the summer past. Sunken down into the cold depths. There are two persons on the bank of the pool, a boy and a girl. They look from the mystified water at each other and a question is lingering in the air.

Would anyone freely wade out to that log on that pool bottom, barefooted, bare legs against the icy water?

The answer to the question… is yes! Just bite the bullet and get in 🙂

The first attempt of trying to raise myself up on to the log from the water was in vain. The feet got sucked down into the bottom. So up I went up on solid ground again and approached the log from above. Playing leapfrog. The idea of getting on to the moist log without getting the dress and myself all dirty just had to be forgotten.

After a rather nice and actually not so cold shoot on the log, it was time to go in again. At least I got to play around a bit in the water, trying to splash Andreas who was assisting on land…

And I promise you, it was rather nice to get dressed again. And it took some time before I could feel my feet again. I hope you enjoy the final result of this shoot 🙂

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To freeze a little for the greater good

Posted on December 7, 2010January 9, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

To freeze a little for the greater good

View it on Flickr

“I had my doubts before doing this shot.”

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 🙂

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Levitation

Posted on November 24, 2010February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

Levitation

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!

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The Force of Nature

Posted on November 6, 2010February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

The Force of Nature

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 at To surrender to the Force of Nature for a Behind the Scenes of the same image.

xoxo,
Jenny

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In da club – Birthday celebration!

Posted on October 22, 2010January 9, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

In da club – Birthday celebration!

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 🙂

THANK YOUUUUU!!! <3

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To surrender to the Force of Nature

Posted on September 16, 2010February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

To surrender to the Force of Nature

“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 🙂

Update November 6th 2010: The processing of this image is also covered within the Educational category. Go have a look!

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To wear a dead bird’s wings…

Posted on August 2, 2010February 26, 2025 by jennyjacobsson

To wear a dead bird’s wings…

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.

levitation, self portrait, post-processing, Photoshop, conceptual, bird, fly, take off, forest, Behind the scenes

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…

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‘THE PENDING STATE OF EXPECTING’

I’m writing this in a haze…

I’m still pending. Expecting.

~Have you gone through something similar yourself? Feel free to write a comment below to share your thoughts and help each other out~ 🙂

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‘Forty Faces’ – Self Portraiture Art Exhibition at Sandell Gallery

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Conceptual portrait in freezing winter – ‘THE SENTENCE’

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Post-processing a fairy tale

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‘THE REFLECTION OF AUTUMN’

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To freeze a little for the greater good

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Levitation

THE PROBLEM

LEVITATION AND MONTAGES

IMAGES NEEDED TO BE SHOT

PHOTOSHOP PROCESS

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The Force of Nature

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In da club – Birthday celebration!

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To surrender to the Force of Nature

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To wear a dead bird’s wings…

SHOOTING PROCESS

PHOTOSHOP PROCESS

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