Can you tell us a little bit about how you became a photographer?

My relationship to photography is a squiggly one, and I´m not sure I am a photographer still. But I’ve been drawn to and worked with visual arts and visual methods in a wide range since my teenage years; from darkroom work, photoshop editing, I spent years in general art schools before I finally ended up studying math and physics at the university. I eventually did a PhD based on methods in fluorescent microscopy imaging and image analysis as tools used in neuroscientific studies. When I was done I had an overwhelming need to start photographing again and that is where I am still.

Photo: Linda Westin // The floater frame Basel gives the nighttime photographs, produced as Fine Art pigment prints under acrylic glass, an elegant and subtle framing.

Please share something about your images. What is your special interest? How do you choose the colors, composition, themes etc.?

I am very inspired by my years working with microscopes looking at neurons and their synapses coming alive in fluorescent colors against a dark background. I use the same type of curiosity now to look at nearby forests or flowers sort of as unknown, almost mystical and as if I had never seen anything like them before. I think I more abide to nature than do much active compositions at the moment when the images are shot. I look for harmony and vastness and places that I like to spend time in, where I feel safe.

Since I work a lot with collages, there is some element of composition that comes in the post production, and that work is very intuitive where I usually don´t have a clear idea where I want to end up. I would say the images come to me rather than me composing them. I can work with images for hours and hours without having this particular sensation, and then it just appears. When I feel good about a composition in a collage I usually have the distinct feeling of being inside of a theatre and that the elements from nature form these coulisses, that in their turn can create an entire world, partially like the one we experience with our senses and partially as a dream. The colors are almost always centered around something bright in the midst of dark surroundings. Most of the images are taken at night time using flashlights to illuminate.

Photo: Linda Westin // Clean lines and magical imagery: The ArtBox made of aluminum presents the large-format photo print under acrylic glass in a floating and sculptural manner.

Where does this interest come from?

I think it's from a general curiosity and some kind of exploration of what nature and life is honestly. To translate a feeling into an image. It is quite difficult to describe in words, but there are few things that compare to being in a dark forest under a starry sky. The camera is my friend and follows me on small adventures to do exploratory imaging of what are really the most breathtaking environments that surround us all and we´re so lucky to experience.

How do you get inspired? And what inspires you the most? Films, books, or magazines? Or what surrounds you? 

By spending time in nature, I usually go late at night. I could go without a camera too, but I really like to photograph as well. I have a lot of influences, many in photography that work with very different things. I´m drawn to analog b&w documentary photography, which is part of my background too. But if I were to pick the greatest influence I say David Lynch's Twin Peaks which both inspired and shaped my view on creativity from my teenage years. And for the awe of life, anything by Hayao Miyazaki.

Photo: Linda Westin // A captivating piece with extraordinary depth: The nighttime photograph was developed as a metallic ultraHD print and framed in an elegant Slimline frame in gold.

What are your plans for the rest of the day?

I am taking a course for teaching math and science, so I´ll be in a seminar related to didactics in those subjects. After that I will spend the rest of the day editing images for a magazine.

What else should we know about you?

• Linda Westin 

• Stockholm, Sweden 

• Freelance photographer, PhD & student in math and science didactics. 

Two things inspire me for future projects. I just got a hold of an IR camera and am so thrilled to try it out, and I have another project that involves people in nature. I can’t wait until they’ve come further in practice.