4 QUESTIONS TO SØREN SOLKÆR

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

After high school I went travelling for 18 months. Despite a very tight travel budget I bought my first SLR camera and had to live on rice and bananas for 4 months. The camera became my key to meeting the world. I would explore places that I wouldn't have had the guts to enter and approach strangers that my young shy self wouldn’t have dared to confront without a camera around my neck.

After my first travels I studied Nordic literature for a couple of years.  I then went travelling for another year. This time photography was my main focus. Upon my return to Denmark I applied to FAMU, the Photo- and Film-Academy in Prague and studied photography there. The following 25 years I became known for my cinematic, stylised portraits of musicians, actors, and filmmakers, from Amy Winehouse, Pharrell Williams, Patti Smith, Paul McCartney to David Lynch.

Photo: Søren Solkær

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

In 2017 I was working on a 25 year retrospective portrait book and exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Denmark. I was going through all my portraits for a year and decided that I wanted to do a new project that was not about portraiture.

The first thing that came to my mind was a dormant memory of a big flock of starlings I had seen flying in intriguing formations as a ten year old. I decided to go to the Wadden Sea on the Danish West Coast where starling murmurations take place in spring and fall.

Photo: Søren Solkær

There are several influences on the project: I have been very inspired by Japanese wood cuts and calligraphy. The big landscapes really remind me of old Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich. And then I do have some images that look like splash paintings, or abstract expressionist paintings. The paper that I print on is Japanese handmade kozo washi paper, juniper fibre-based handmade paper that’s made in sheets with a heavy texture. The final works don’t look like photography. It’s almost like printing on some very organic textile, and I think that gives the work an even stronger relationship to painting.

In my work up until this project I have always worked as a director, a creator. I have been in charge of creating concepts, ideas, and moods in my images. With Black Sun I have opened up to connecting with and receiving from nature. I have used my previous earned skills afterwards in the editing process, finding a visual expression for the images, choosing paper to print the images on et.c. All in all it has been a very humbling experience to let go of the control of a project.

Photo: Søren Solkær

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

The inspirations for my style as a photographer are ranging from filmmakers David Lynch and Wong Kar-Wai through to the works of photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia and painter Caspar David Friedrich. Also having a strong sensory relationship with nature is a main inspiration.

What are your plans for the rest of the day? 

Going to the gym. Cooking Thai food for my daughters. Going to a lecture tonight entitled: “Therefore you never fall in love with the wrong person.”