interview • thobias fäldt
i heart photograph: this photo takes what looks like a snapshot and makes the viewer slow down and think about what he or she is looking at. to what extent is this planned in advance and what is the role of staging in your work? is suggesting a narrative important to you, and if so, how do you bring it into your photographs?
thobias fäldt: none of the pictures from my series, ‘year one,’ are planned or staged—they’re always snapshots—but i try to frame the picture so you don't know where it's taken and you don't get any geographic information; no answers are given.
maybe it will kill the picture when i tell you this, but the cabbage picture is taken in my girlfriend klara's old apartment and she is watching a swedish criminal tv-series called "lasermannen" (a very good series based on a true story about a serial killer in sweden in the beginning of the '90s). when klara watches movies she can't do anything else—she is totally in it—and that's why she has those mysterious eyes. she was also into eating cabbage as a snack during this time.
i take thousands of pictures but i always stick to shooting only one frame of every photo 'cause i don't know how to choose otherwise. and i can't look at the pictures directly after i have taken them because if i do that i have such a strong feeling of the moment when i took it. it can only be a "picture" for me when the feelings from the moment are gone and all that is left is the picture as you see it. then i can choose. i'm always looking for pictures that have more than one layer of feeling. when i found the cabbage picture i felt sadness, happiness, and humor, so i chose it. so yes; suggesting a narrative is the most important thing for me in my work.
i see suggesting a narrative as the moment of build up in a story. the story comes with the pictures that, together, make something to be told; i make up the story afterwards.
when the moment of sensation is gone (the reason to take the picture in the first place) i look at it again to see if it has potential to be something more, not just a nice/sad/humorous moment but something that is a combination of it all together.
thobias fäldt: none of the pictures from my series, ‘year one,’ are planned or staged—they’re always snapshots—but i try to frame the picture so you don't know where it's taken and you don't get any geographic information; no answers are given.
maybe it will kill the picture when i tell you this, but the cabbage picture is taken in my girlfriend klara's old apartment and she is watching a swedish criminal tv-series called "lasermannen" (a very good series based on a true story about a serial killer in sweden in the beginning of the '90s). when klara watches movies she can't do anything else—she is totally in it—and that's why she has those mysterious eyes. she was also into eating cabbage as a snack during this time.
i take thousands of pictures but i always stick to shooting only one frame of every photo 'cause i don't know how to choose otherwise. and i can't look at the pictures directly after i have taken them because if i do that i have such a strong feeling of the moment when i took it. it can only be a "picture" for me when the feelings from the moment are gone and all that is left is the picture as you see it. then i can choose. i'm always looking for pictures that have more than one layer of feeling. when i found the cabbage picture i felt sadness, happiness, and humor, so i chose it. so yes; suggesting a narrative is the most important thing for me in my work.
i see suggesting a narrative as the moment of build up in a story. the story comes with the pictures that, together, make something to be told; i make up the story afterwards.
when the moment of sensation is gone (the reason to take the picture in the first place) i look at it again to see if it has potential to be something more, not just a nice/sad/humorous moment but something that is a combination of it all together.
