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PHOTO
Selected Analog Works 2023-2024
Soft Ice: Colder Intimacy
Sophie has a particular way of showing affection. As we all do. Sometimes she'll look at you like you don't matter. But if you know her, you're aware that this is the ultimate sign of approval. Harshness can be tender if one knows when and how to discern. No-one should dictate what makes you feel appreciated. If this is understood, a world of unorthodox affection is uncovered.
Kristian Soisalo x STiMULANT III
This is the third and final shoot in Marrakech with Noana for the STiMULANT collaboration. Utilizing monochrome's unique potential to ignore otherwise unaesthetic colour combinations, the focus was on highlighting the garment's textures and shape, creating a unique scene which would otherwise be thematically incoherent, if panchromatic film were used. The secondary theme was contrasting the garment's delicateness with the harsh background of Marrakshi construction zones.
Photography & Shoot Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent & Styling: Noana Smits
Project Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Photography & Shoot Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent & Styling: Noana Smits
Project Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Street Photography in Marrakech II
It's so much at once that the only way I can focus is moving sequentially from subject to subject. Trips like this reminds me why my heart remains firmly in the grasp of street photography. Creating slices out of situations, crumbling an entire into the graspable, is the seeming power that a shutter button under my index finger gives me. It's certainly symbiotic, and the effect isn't just on the product it'll create, but also the way it changes the way I observe the world instantaneously. It's a sense of power, but not one that projects itself onto the power of others.
Coverage of Protests for Palestine in Amsterdam III
A time comes in a movement where sanctioned demonstrations prove insufficient, appropriately termed as escalation. When leaning out of the realm of collaboration, action turns divisive, and media hence turns incomplete. The role of the "unpresspassed" photographer in such a situation becomes to capture, of course the sensational, but also the mundane. It is easy to forget the tens of kilograms of donations that protestors give each other when what goes viral on twitter is aggression by opposition. The task is of desensationalization, and this body of work aims to encapsulate that. More tragic than a story not told is a story half-told.
Street Photography in Amsterdam II
When I'm asked what I take photographs of, my answer is always "anything that interests me". This collection pays tribute to that mentality. This, of course, is only possible because I can't leave my home without my camera. Assorted characters and situations will always be there, independent of the observer. This collection showcases photographic reality, with minimal curation. Our memory isn't naturally eidetic, but luckily that can now be changed.
Street Photography in Amsterdam I
It's not Berlin, neither is it trying to be. But that's what I'll unavoidably compare it to, because I had to choose between there and here. Luckily it still has its fair share of "characters". I feel so comfortable on the street here, maybe too much. On one hand, that means I know where to go and what to expect and look for. On the other, perhaps I've grown too comfortable, and I fear that street photography is fuelled by the uncommon. This collection is an ode either to what uncommon I found in what would otherwise be the mundane, or just the acceptance of the mundane as beautiful in its own way.
Coverage of Protests for Palestine in Amsterdam II
Flares in front of canalfront houses seems oxymoronic. External views encircled in the naïveté that unrest in a society which praises an upfront method of communication as the primary method of problem solving can easily ignore the idea that unrest can build up to the point of action. In this case, it was sanctioned, arguably, hence a collaboration. Not to minimize though, given that the objective was indeed to literally, demonstrate.
Coverage of Protests for Palestine in Amsterdam I
My tendency to cover demonstrations in monochrome has exceptions. Occasionally, I feel that while emotion can be captured in B&W, (oftentimes better) the vividity of these settings cannot be denied, especially because it is commonly used as a tool to garner attention. In conjunction with a 23mm lens, this allows one to capture the integrity that these movements have with the city, rather than being something that happens in them.
Photography of Lea Ellemann for Ulrike Quade Company
The focal point of Lea's residency at UQC was the access to an industrial robotic arm, around which all residents would base their artistic research on. For this, my participation was both sound design and photography. Also portrayed is the instrument I designed and manufactured for this project. The research culminated in two performances in April 2024. As preliminary work for the forthcoming research trip to Morrocco, wherein the future photoshoots for this collaboration would be set. This photoshoot sought to portray an impossible symbiotic relationship between a robot and a human. The use of off-camera flash with an aperture wider than the lightmeter-dictated one aimed to create subject isolation, effectively encapsulating Lea and the arm in that moment. When combined with monochrome, a sense of melancholic antiquity is achieved, in harsh juxtaposition with the cutting-edge technology represented by the robotic arm.
Photography & Shoot Co-Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent, Styling, Project Direction, Shoot Co-Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Photography & Shoot Co-Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent, Styling, Project Direction, Shoot Co-Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Hooves Are Hands, Too
The volatility in the behaviour of a prey animal is fascinating. Can a creature have a moment of relaxation if their natural function is to serve as nourishment for anything higher in the food chain? Brittle bones, surrounded by overdeveloped explosive muscle, and twitchy side-facing eyes make up the wild horses that inspire me so. It took hours of crawling in their direction to gain their favour, all temporarily ruined by the crackle of a twig under my feet. Maybe it was meant to be kept ephemeral.
I see myself in them so much. The harsh Dutch wind treats us all equally. One always imagines themself as the tiger or the wolf, but never the prey. It turns out most of us aren't apex predators. Maybe for the best.
Photography & Direction: Kristian Soisalo
I see myself in them so much. The harsh Dutch wind treats us all equally. One always imagines themself as the tiger or the wolf, but never the prey. It turns out most of us aren't apex predators. Maybe for the best.
Photography & Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Kristian Soisalo x STiMULANT I
The first shoot Marrakech with Noana for the STiMULANT collaboration. A different approach to shibari photgraphy, the use of a 23mm wide-angle lens serves to highlight the inclusion of the model in the space, rather than isolate them, focusing on the situation, rather than the ropes themselves. The unorthodox decision to include photographs with this lens as well as a 135mm plays with the viewer's sense of space, a doubt arises over whether they are included in the scene or not. This varies in accordance to the the focal lenth, a contrast between observation and participation.
Photography & Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent & Styling: Noana Smits
Project Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Photography & Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent & Styling: Noana Smits
Project Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Street Photography in Marrakech I
Marrakech reminds me tremendously of Brazil. A beautifully poignant chaos, fueled by inequality of opportunity. As cliché as it is, these situations truly create the kindest people. I had the opportunity to make friends with the people who volunteered at the Pikala pop-up at Jamaa El-Fna, a free bicycle repair center. This allowed me to interact with and capture candidly their "clients", many of which turned out to be lovely people. In some of these, you'll spot Noana, the model I was travelling with for the collaboration with STiMULANT.
Kristian Soisalo x STiMULANT II
This is the second shoot in Marrakech with Noana for the STiMULANT collaboration. The seeming contradiction and slight taboo of soaking pure silk in water makes for a unique scene. A commodity so precious in an element that could damage it creates a particular sense of melancholic fragility, enhanced by the creative use of off-camera flash in conjunction with the unorthodox use of a mirror in the background and the sensuality of transparency from wetting garments. Purposeful underexpose for the further shots aims to create a sense of locational specificity, the pool made to be its own, isolated environment.
Photography & Shoot Co-Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent, Styling, and Shoot Co-Direction: Noana Smits
Project Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
Photography & Shoot Co-Direction: Kristian Soisalo
Talent, Styling, and Shoot Co-Direction: Noana Smits
Project Direction & Garments: Lea Ellemann
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