Little Corner of Ania

Yay!!
I'm pretty happy and satisfied right now - cannot say enough how much of an inspirational and motivational event this has been, and it even ended on a high with me being one of two lucky winners of a signed book by Nan Goldin (the one I didn't buy, bought another book for the signing earlier the day - contemplated buying both books but didn't have the budget for it *cough*) - so yey!!

But first..sorry for the blog-spam re my trip to Oslo. This will be the last one, promise! (besides, I'm not entirely comfortable editing on uncalibred screens and stuff, so apologizes if the piccies seem off :p)

Anyways. As I mentioned in yesterdays blogpost - my niece slept over here too and the two of them spent the morning together. Here you can see Amalies pink bunny in the front, named "Nasse Nøff" (the Norwegian name for Piglet - but I think it's a bunny not a pig :p) that Amalie got from her grandma when we arrived Oslo and been inseparable from since. Amalie is talkin to her daddy on the phone and my niece is playing with her pink pearl-necklace.

Then I went off to Tronsmo bookstore to wait for Nan Goldin to arrive in order to sign books. I arrived at 12.30pm, she was scheduled to sign from 1 to 2pm but she didn't arrive until 1.40pm. Luckily I was number five in the queue (which ended up counting more than 200 people afaik) and she sat for three hours signing for them all. She seemed sweet and pretty nervous too - at least from what I could see in the beginning. Like someone you just wanna hug and tell it'll be fine sortof. Maybe I'm just affected by her photos thinking that way.

Anyways. Being a huge Nikon-fan I'm happy I managed to attend the demostration of D3s, the new lenses and views on the future of photography. Just had to attach this photo because - NIKON!! ;p

Another photo from the demonstration which was very interesting regarding the future of photography and the intertwinement between stills, sounds and movies and the future of pressphotography and the displayment of the mediums, the possibilities with iPad, iPhones, web and papers/magazines and well, just all around intriguing. Oh, and yeah, I was totally left with the feeling - I WANT NEED MUST HAVE D3s!!!!! *sigh* and 70-200 f/2.8 vr2..I'm so not gonna ask for more! :p

Then Erik Berglund and Tore Berntsen, two heavyweight-pressphotographers, shared a taste of the possibilities with all this new technology as mentioned above. I have to say I do agree, sure, live video is fine and all that, but it's the combination between video, sound and not least, stills - that really can make interesting multimedia-pieces. And yes, the need for pictures is still there despite the new fancy cameras have the possibilities for video in them. All in all, all the new impulses and stuff both today and the last few days made me want to explore the video-function at the workcamera (canon 7D) more than I have until now.

Then we have Kathy Ryan. Wow. To think that Dok:10 actually got Kathy Ryan, the photo editor of New York Times Magazine all the way to Oslo, Norway to this little festival - amazing! And so intriguing listening to her reasonings re the pictures and choices in photographers and themes and all the creativity and work behind the photos and all that - amazing experience being able to get a little peek behind the scenes of her important work of organizing and managing the NYT Magazine photoside. I especially found the elaborating on all the work and anecdotes about their spread of Obamas inner staff very interesting. Paolo Pellegrin was originally sceduled to screen after her, but got stuck at a hospital coming down with something following his covering of Haiti so Kathy introduced his work (having worked close with him for years) and wow, such an amazing and impressing portfolio. I'm ashamed to admit I knew nothing about him prior to Dok:10 - I was left breathless after the long slideshow (20?40? minutes?) - such an amazing photographer. Shame he was prevented to attend, and hope it's nothing bad - he really needs to get out in the world again shooting more..

Then there was Nan Goldin. When I first read about Dok:10 I was like - omg, they got Nan Goldin to attend!!! And was sad I wouldn't be able to be there - but then this grant came up and I actually was one of the lucky ones receiving it and I was able to attend after all - I'm so thankful for that. She shared that she's not comfortable taking pictures the way she used to do anymore, she rarely attends her own screenings because it's too painful (as the main-body of her work she shared was her friends who's not among us anymore due to AIDS and ODs) and what's pretty telling imo - she took pictures because she was afraid of losing them, as if taking pictures would help her keep them close still and when they did not - she felt like the pictures, the photography, had betrayed her. And she feels like she's exploited/exposed (hm, not quite sure which word she actually used, but I think she might have meant both nevertheless?) herself enough to the extent that she was tired of it. I really got the feeling from watching her on the stage that she felt somewhat uncomfortable being there (and she said so herself), repeating that anyone can take a picture, especially these days, she's nothing special really and stuff - but really, she's got such an eye for the mood in pictures sort of (which seemed especially evident in the few pictures Kathy Ryan earlier shared of some commissioned pictures from her for NYT Magazine). I mean - she took her out from her hm, "natural environment" (her friends) and let her shoot a young model and she delivered spot on with the uncanny Nan Goldin "eye" for people. So for her to feel undeserving (my impression?) of being there - nonsense - and in a way I hope she'll know that deep inside too.

With Goldin done, Dok:10 ended, and they announced that there was two lucky passes for signed books for two in the audience - "just look under your chairs". I did, and I didn't see anything at first, so I was like, "bummer" - then I picked up my stuff and thought I'd recheck and sure enough - there actually was one under my chair. YAY :D Happyhappyhappy :) Now I own two different (and signed!) Nan Goldin books and I'm over the moon thrilled about it :)

One thing I wish - is that I knew just someone attending Dok:10. I don't, apart from saying hi to one I've been in a meeting with as awell as recognizing a few others as presspeople from Bergen because I've seen them at the Christmas Party for journalists from Bergen :p It sure would have been nice to have someone to discuss with and just digest and bounce off all the inspiration & ideas with, but ohwell. Maybe I'll feel braver next time to just go and chat up people. I got to go home early and snap this piccie of the patrolling police on the horses at least! :p

And finally - just a piccie illustrating how nice it is to be home once in a while and just do the things I normally do when home at moms place. Drink Liptons "Yellow Label Tea" with honey and milk (dunno why I don't buy this to me "plain" tea at home myself - but I've grown up with there always being a box of "Yellow Label Tea" in the shelves at home. And eat toasted bread (I believe the only time the toaster is whipped out here is when I'm at home) with blue cheese. :)

Hope you all have had a nice a week - I know I totally have.