Verden er uskarp (2022) - full transcript

The almost 2.5 years I worked

at the Bauhaus school -

- have influenced my view

of photography in a major way.

I was almost shocked to discover -

- that you could create

your own reality as a photographer.

I've always been fascinated

by what light does to things.

It's the light

that gives shape to things.

Reality isn't super sharp.

I don't experience things

super sharply.

I experience something different

with my senses instead.

THE WORLD IS OUT OF FOCUS

This birch has some amazing colours.

And I need to give my birch a hug

every time I see it.

Look at all these colours here.

Isn't that incredible?

It's so beautiful.

Here...

I have to correct my hair.

It's supposed to be

a fun cowboy picture.

Or a saloon style picture.

I actually like it

when things are a bit off.

A bit off in a certain way.

Or not quite finished.

I think things can sometimes become

so perfect that they end up dying.

I like all the things

that humans have created.

Those photos wouldn't exist

if people hadn't made them.

This is bloody fantastic, isn't it?

This is a rather good spot.

This will look amazing

with light passing through.

When I expose it,

the light will go through the holes -

- and spread out as it exits.

It will be amazing to use.

It's just a piece of plastic junk.

This is a pretty amazing spot.

Look at that old log there.

This looks beautiful.

When I see something strange,

I pick it up.

I don't know

what I'll use it for when I see it.

I have boxes full of stuff that I can

dig out when I want to make something.

This is something I use a lot.

When I put it into the enlarger,

I can make it into any size.

With these shapes, the light

looks amazing when it shines through.

So you don't put it on top

of the photo itself.

But you go through it like a negative

and use it in the enlarger.

Excuse me? Would you happen

to have a plastic bag I could have?

Yeah. Thank you!

Thank you very much.

I don't know why I forgot it at home.

Thanks.

Tada! Much easier.

I got a bag!

Well done, Iben.

I want to look over here.

It's all related to curiosity.

You walk to the top of a hill -

- because you don't know what's on

the other side, so you have to explore.

That's what my life has been like.

I had to walk around that corner

and see what was happening there.

Or if I walk to the right, something

completely different might happen.

That's what you discover

when you explore.

You might discover something wonderful -

- because you took a few

extra steps to the right or left.

My dad and his brothers founded Kosan Gas

and named the company's vessels -

- after the female members

of the family.

So I had a ship

named Mary Else Tholstrup.

I'm actually the ship's godmother.

When I tell people I was born

in Casablanca... That's rather unusual.

'Why were you born there?'

Well, my parents were in Morocco.

My dad was the Danish consul

in Morocco.

That's where he met my mum,

who had grown up in Paris.

I took that one.

She spoke with a French accent

her whole life.

My dad was not called Lauritz.

She said 'Laurice'.

She was incredibly charming.

There's adventure in my family's blood.

I'm probably the family member

who's been on the most adventures.

When I was 16 I met my better half,

Jan Engberg.

That lasted the entirety

of his long life.

We were together from the age of 16.

We both wanted to leave Denmark.

He studied as a cabinetmaker,

and I as a photographer.

We wanted to get away,

and we ended up going to New York.

It was incredible to live

in such an exciting place.

There were people in the streets 24/7.

You could buy food and go shopping.

You could go see a movie

whenever you wanted.

It was in that time

where you could go to Central Park -

- and see

Bob Dylan playing every night.

You could sit and listen

and eat the food you had brought.

It was always busy.

We bought a house shortly after.

It was empty

and everything had to be fixed.

We did it all by ourselves and worked

on it every night until 2:30 AM.

Then we had breakfast and showered

and were ready for work by 7 AM.

It's energising. The more you do,

the more you want to do.

When I went to New York

for the first time in the 1980s...

I didn't care if a million photographers

had taken pictures there before me.

I found it so fascinating

that the sky was cut into pieces.

Because of the houses.

Again, mankind that had made its mark -

- and built all these gigantic houses.

And all of it is so spectacular.

The entire New Yorker series is

much more raw than my usual photos.

Photos from New York are usually

glossy or in colour.

I wanted it

to almost look like it was drawn.

There are limited shades in the paper,

like photogravures.

The black is absorbent, so there aren't

a lot of shades within the black.

That way I was able to tell

my own story about New York.

I found it at an exhibition

in Reykjavik.

I thought,

'Wow, I really want this picture!'

I used this for the invitation

to my 80th birthday.

People found it a little bit strange.

A bit morbid you could say.

But I didn't think so.

It actually started when my kids -

- whom I had been photographing

for years...

In this room as well,

which actually has good light -

- and some nice lighting effects.

When they reached school age...

Once in a while I would get

an idea for a picture.

And when I didn't have anyone else

to photograph and boss around -

- all I had was myself.

I call this picture

'The Domestic Goddess'.

I sit there with the pot lid as my halo.

I think I've always

taken pictures based on -

- where I was in life, so to speak.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's not that I don't like people -

- but I've always enjoyed photographing

cities without people.

Fashion and clothes place people

at a specific point in time.

I wanted my photos to be timeless.

I told Jan we'd go to Manhattan early

in the morning, while it was empty.

But it turns out Manhattan

is never empty.

The only way to do this

is to use a pinhole.

A camera obscura is a box

with a hole in it.

Most people use photo paper as

the background and photograph on that.

I wanted to do that too,

but I wanted to use film instead.

In the beginning I made them

square or rectangular.

But an eye sees a round shape, so

I wanted the pinhole to do that as well.

We ate oatmeal every morning,

and I'd use the oatmeal boxes.

I've made all my cameras

out of them since then.

I decided to go to 5th Avenue

and stand by the church up there.

There's a lot of traffic, and I wanted

a shot where the people had disappeared.

So I went there and took a photo

and the people were gone.

And that's when I got it.

Whatever is standing still is captured

and the rest disappears.

I've shot the Tomb of the Virgin

in Jerusalem.

It looks like light streaming down,

but it's created by people walking.

It's the emptiness in the pictures

that I like -

- because then you see

the things that are.

I don't know in advance.

I'll be walking through the woods

and see a beautiful tree or lighting -

- and feel like taking a photo.

But I won't know in advance.

And I don't have any use for it,

I just want to capture it.

I have lots of nature photos

that I just took because I felt like it.

I am not exactly sure

what's in this suitcase.

These are more nature photos.

The Taj Mahal.

This is a really good photo,

if I may say so myself.

I loved my Nikons.

I could change the lenses and

knew them like the back of my hand.

Or my Rolleiflexes

or whatever I was using.

The Louisiana Museum

did three archaeological exhibits.

The first was about Pompeii,

then Iraq, then China.

I was lucky enough

to be chosen as their photographer.

I travelled around

and took pictures for the exhibits.

My cows...

It makes you fall asleep.

I have it by my bed.

It's so peaceful.

The word 'time' is always present.

You could say

that the time I spend -

- not quite finding subjects,

because they're just there...

And the time spent making

the picture in the darkroom -

- so that it tells the story that

I experienced when I took the photo -

- that is all related to time.

You can walk by quickly and not see it,

or you can take the time to stop -

- and perhaps capture something

in the moment.

With these things, I can spend

days moving them around.

At some point they'll fall into place

and be just right.

This is not ready yet.

Something is missing.

It's okay if it's artificial,

but not too much.

Quite often I'll actually take a photo

or just a test photo in here.

When I see it on the screen, I can

tell what's off and should be changed.

It's odd that I need to see it

on a screen instead of with my eyes -

- but that's how it sometimes is for me.

This is a bit too nice. I don't think

I want to photograph that. Too dull.

I have some wings here

that were provided by my cat.

It's like the egg needs to be

the unifying point.

This is so simple that I don't need

to do anything more to it.

Also because of the background.

That gun doesn't work here.

It's better here with these.

I can see myself

moving these around quite a bit.

I don't know.

I would say

this is good quality light right now.

It's nice that the sun isn't shining.

It's bright, it's been raining

and it's of great quality.

It's very transparent.

It's important to me

that no shadows are present.

The light comes

from that direction -

- so this edge can cast

a small shadow here.

What I sometimes do is to put a small

shadow along the other edges too.

I can do that on the computer.

Erik Christian Sørensen,

he was an amazing architect, I think.

He used me for all his houses,

because I understood the concept -

- behind how he built his houses.

Here we have it again.

I plan out where the tree should be -

- and I make sure to come back at dusk

to get that light inside the house.

He meant so much to me,

because he also wanted me to progress.

He was the one who encouraged me

to study Bauhaus -

- and convinced me that

this was what I had to do.

I had to go to America.

Bauhaus started in Germany.

But then Hitler didn't like them,

so they had to get out.

Moholy-Nagy came from Bauhaus.

He then founded

the Institute of Design in Chicago.

They made industrial design.

Things that were meant to be used.

That's how it started in Germany

by Walter Gropius.

I was 22 when I got there.

I'm the third person from the right.

Our teacher, the second person

from the left, was Aaron Siskind.

A rather well-known

American photographer.

AN ACADEMY

FOR YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS

When I came to Chicago

I was a trained photographer.

I knew the craft

and how to copy photos.

That's how you could see

that I was a professional photographer.

I got scholarships

and did exhibitions for example.

We're showing some of her student work

for the very first time -

- since she showed them

in Chicago in 1951-52.

Whatever I have seen from Else -

- is way above normal standards.

She is very aware

that only the best is good enough.

I do believe that if Else would have

stood up and promoted her own work -

- she would be a very well-known

photographer nowadays.

And it's a crying shame.

It's not just photography,

but also how to use the photo.

I've made a book on that

called A Game in City Streets -

- which features children

playing in the street.

I take photos, and then I draw

the backgrounds where they play.

That was how we worked

at the school in Chicago.

In Chicago,

I lived on 17 East Elm Street.

I lived with Ati Gropius

and her husband.

Every time Ati's father,

Walter Gropius, visited -

- we would have dinners together,

and we became one big family.

I probably wasn't aware of how

famous they were at the time -

- but I found out later on.

I was lucky enough to get to work -

- for the well-known photographer

Arthur Siegel.

He had previously taught photography

at the school.

He saw my photos at that exhibition -

- and asked me to come along

to help him copy his photos.

I came along for a lot of his shoots.

I took portraits of Frank Lloyd Wright

while Arthur Siegel did other things.

But it was Siegel's commission, so

the negatives all belonged to him.

I wasn't credited.

I was just thrilled to be there.

To get to do it,

and to be in the darkroom.

Which I was good at.

Then I had to find a job, which wasn't

easy, as they wouldn't hire women.

Women didn't belong

in commercial photography.

Then I found a man

named David Langley -

- who was a big name

in commercial photography.

He had an impressively large studio -

- and people were running around

as if an accident had happened.

They didn't have time for me because

something terrible had happened.

They had been on a shoot

and when they came back -

- the assistant had developed all the

pictures in one tub and left for lunch.

Then someone had set the water to boil,

so all the film had melted.

I said I could fix it for them,

if they got me some hardener.

He asked me what hardener was,

and I sent him to a photography shop.

I told them to get a lot of bags

and bring them to me so I could fix it.

He went, 'Good Lord, it's working!'

And I said, 'I told you!'

'Why doesn't anyone else know?'

'Because you weren't trained

in Denmark.'

He said, 'I'd like to talk to you.

Can you stay until this is sorted?'

Then he said, 'I know

just the right person for you.'

Then he called J. Frederick Smith who

asked him to send me over at once.

I noticed charming Fred the moment

I stepped in. We clicked immediately.

You also need luck.

I went to work for Fred,

who didn't know about technical stuff.

He was an illustrator.

In the old days they used illustrations

instead of photos of clothes.

Ads were illustrations

rather than photos.

He needed someone who knew what

she was doing, so he gave me a job.

And he said, 'Marianne,

I'm giving you all the still lifes.'

'You can't tell anyone,

and it has to be in my name.'

'But I'll pay you $1000 per photo.'

1000 dollars! I came from

8 dollars a month in Denmark.

We'll be millionaires

before we've even started.

We really lived the dream

of coming to America and making it.

I worked with Fred Smith

for eight years.

We had an amazing time together.

We travelled the world

and took pictures.

I was the one who set up the light

and did everything.

But none of it had my name on it.

Fred said he was the photographer.

People would tell me

I was copying Fred.

No one believed it was my technique.

Fred's name was on everything.

I call this,

'The Young Girl's Dream of Marriage.'

That's the dream, and that's reality.

For this one I needed two enlargers.

I exposed the background first

and covered this.

Then I used another enlarger, covered

the background and exposed this.

It was rather laborious.

This is the last picture that was

ever taken of the whole family.

Before my father died in a car crash.

This is my mother.

She died from a brain tumour

1.5 years after my father had died.

This is perhaps the most symbolic,

because I am looking straight ahead.

And the knife is right above her head.

I didn't know that my parents would die

shortly after that photo was taken.

This is my Icelandic grandmother.

That's my Danish grandmother.

My Icelandic family wanted my brother

and me to go live in Iceland.

So I grew up and lived in Iceland

until I was 20 years old.

This is a photo

my father took of my mother.

His shadow falls on her

in such a beautiful way.

Let's see if it works.

LARS SCHWANDER

Muse, photographer and assistant

You can speak up a little bit, Tove.

When they sit down

in front of a camera -

- it's sometimes crucial for me to...

first of all strip off that social

friendliness toward the camera.

People become very socially friendly

when they sit in front of a camera.

Perhaps we're scared of the sides

we don't like about ourselves.

That they become visible too soon.

Do you think it's different when

you're photographed by a family member -

- compared to having your portrait taken

by someone else?

I think families have some

very rigid roles and patterns.

And it's very rare

that we break out of those -

- when we're with our family.

Aren't you more rigid with a stranger?

On the contrary. I think you have

more trust in a stranger -

- you don't have to

wake up next to and live with -

- for the next many, many years.

Is the camera the essential thing

when taking portraits?

Yes, I'd say so. It's a tool you need

to know like the back of your hand.

If you don't, you deprive yourself

of that great contact you can have -

- with the subject, because

you'll be thinking about your camera.

Where to press, how to focus, etc.

You must be perfectly

comfortable with your camera.

It's a tool, much like it would be

for a violinist or a guitarist.

Yes. Do you prefer that people

forget about the camera?

Yes, I prefer that.

Because otherwise it becomes -

- the person's relationship

with the camera -

- that determines the picture.

And I don't think that the camera is...

good enough at getting

the right things to come out.

They don't have a role

when they arrive. They're lost.

- They don't have any roles?

- They need to set them aside in a way.

Because this is my domain.

I'm the one who acts

almost like a lion tamer.

I can crack the whip

whichever way I like.

You look like you belong in the wild.

I can see it in your eyes.

You really have...

They're like rocky cliffs.

- Did you grow up in nature?

- Well, Oslo.

I guess that's a bit...

I wouldn't mind making you wet, perhaps.

Your hair.

Could you take it off?

I would bring some water in, then.

Not now though.

Because I think it would look great

if your body was a bit wet.

And that we could see the water

on your face and body.

That would tie it together.

Black and white have a powerful effect.

That looks good with your hair

and beard that sort of go that way.

Doesn't he look good?

I think so too.

If you're wearing that coat,

you should use it.

That's it,

because then we can use the hands.

Think Hollywood.

Face too. Wow.

Isn't she beautiful?

Try looking past me.

Into nothingness, into eternity.

That's it. The eyelashes

look good here as well.

Isn't that a beautiful mouth?

Like a heart.

Try opening it up just a little bit.

Yes, it looks softer and larger.

Try using your other hand

to move your hair around.

- Like that?

- Oh yes. Great.

Yes, just like that.

Shouldn't she be a model?

Maybe you are? No? Okay.

Then I decided to leave Fred.

Everyone told me I was crazy,

and I thought they might be right.

I found a lovely penthouse

with two roofs -

- where I could

take photos with amazing light.

So I signed the contract and took it.

And then I opened my own studio.

It went surprisingly well, because

one thing I was good at was lighting.

The first job I landed

was for Steuben Glass.

No one sat light better than me,

so four days a week -

- I did all their glassware.

That meant I could pay the rent

for my apartment and studio.

That was nice with just one client.

All the rest came along eventually.

But I found it exciting

to set the light on glassware.

A village on the island of Ceylon

in the Indian Ocean.

Laterna Film had asked me to do a

few five-minute children's programmes.

So I decided to dive into that.

I ended up on Ceylon

with all my cameras.

I had a chauffeur who drove me around

because I had so much equipment.

He could watch out for me too, as

I went into the jungle as a young woman.

I was in my mid-twenties.

I can still remember his voice

as he turned to me and said:

'Missy, you must be born

at the end of June.'

Excuse me? How did he know

I was born in late June?

Then he said that after

driving me around for three days -

- he could sense

that I was born in late June.

He told me quite a few other things.

Apparently he was psychic.

Then I asked him, 'What about love?'

I was single at the time, no boyfriend.

And I figured that I had to meet

a nice man at some point.

And then he said,

'Ah, he's just around the corner.'

Then one day as I was coming home

from my shoot, I ran into a film crew.

They were shooting

The Bridge on the River Kwai.

They just stared as I lugged

my cameras and equipment around.

They had no idea

where I had come from.

I was invited for drinks at the hotel

where we all happened to be staying.

They all found it interesting

that I was also a photographer -

- because they needed someone to take

behind-the-scenes photos for them.

Alec Guinness had the lead role.

He and I became great friends.

He told some great stories.

All my photos went straight to America

where they replied:

'Let her stay, the photos look good.'

I never saw them myself.

That's Alec Guinness

and Sessue Hayakawa.

These are from

The Bridge on the River Kwai.

They look so tiny on this machine.

I find it really difficult...

to put this into words.

These are the actors, but...

I'd hate to attach my name

to something if I'm unsure.

I thought the cinema operator

was rather sweet.

I wondered if he was the man

my chauffeur had talked about.

His name was Peter.

So...

I had a romance with Peter.

In the evenings, Peter

and William Holden would play drums.

And that inspired me to take

drum lessons in the village.

And I bought two drums

so I could play with them.

We brought the drums back to Denmark.

Peter and I would sit on

my parents' terrace and play our drums.

I had learnt some beats.

I still remember one of them.

Here it comes...

And you'd play several drums.

We had a lot of fun with that.

I spent six months on the film.

Then Peter and I travelled

through India up to Kashmir.

A lot of the pictures of me

are some I've taken myself -

- with the camera on a tripod

and a self-timer.

And then I'd run to my position.

I didn't always make it,

but I did make it onto the elephant.

Then he went back to London,

where he was from.

You can't see it, it's miniscule.

See? That's the hole people will pay

a lot of money to know the size of.

It all started when I arrived in 1963.

And I didn't have that hole until 1971.

It took that long to make

the perfect hole.

Thousands of holes to get it right.

How do your pictures come into being?

You also crop them?

In the darkroom,

I want to have the option -

- to use the space

that surrounds the person -

- in the way that I feel

it should be incorporated -

- in terms of the direction of the gaze,

movement or light.

Would you find any satisfaction

in cropping when exposing?

No, it would be dull

to go into the darkroom -

- if my process had been completed

during the shoot.

Then I may as well hire someone

to develop the pictures in the darkroom.

There's something in me that tells me

the picture has to be a certain way.

Because otherwise

it doesn't fall into place.

You can see it and then

you walk around and read the light.

When I take a pinhole,

I read from my hand.

It takes practice.

You have exposures that take -

- from 17 minutes and up to three

hours, which has been the longest.

The picture I like from the staircase

had a 1.5-hour exposure.

I feel it in my gut when it's right.

Some pictures just don't reach me,

and then I must change them.

Some photos are just right.

I only do one picture of each thing.

But to get to that picture,

I might do ten versions -

- to find the one that it should be.

It's not just one picture,

but the last one is the best one -

- within that series of ten.

It's a long,

almost alchemistic process -

- when you're in the darkroom

working with pictures.

And you're just alone

in the dark with the red lamps.

Perhaps with a bit of music

which might have some sort of effect.

You're very isolated

when you're making pictures in the dark.

What I normally do

is to over-expose and over-develop -

- to make the pictures

look as grainy as possible.

I was very happy to leave the darkroom.

I thought 30 years in the dark

had to be enough.

When I learned to work digitally -

- it was actually a big relief

to not have to go into the darkroom.

I don't have a darkroom anymore,

and I don't miss it.

Standing over those chemicals

definitely takes its toll.

They are more or less poisonous

chemicals. There's no escaping that.

It suits me at this age to sit here

and make my pictures.

These cabbage girls are adorable.

Just look at their clogs.

I do one almost every day, but

they don't always turn out very well.

I had done it one way first

and it looked completely idiotic.

That picture was much too nice.

It should be like this.

When you travel the world,

you need to travel light.

It's just cardboard, so it's very light.

You can see that it's made

in such a way -

- that my assistant could place it

without knowing what was what.

I'd ask for 'box B' and it would show

here and also on the box itself.

You had the problem during

the shoot that when you open here -

- the sun would shine into it,

and then you couldn't get a picture.

So I made a lens hood -

- which is just a half tube like this

that I put on.

Then I could push it back and forth

until the light didn't hit the hole.

I've always been fascinated

by the south.

Columns, heat, palm trees and all that.

To begin with I travelled

to Italy and Greece a lot.

Also for this series, which was

exhibited at Art Museum Brandts.

It was beauty

that I wanted to capture.

Because that was what I found

on Acropolis and in Rome.

My idea was that I somehow

wanted to show -

- how architecture

had been fascinated by nature.

Like how a column

could look like a palm tree.

With the crown of the tree on top, etc.

I don't have a fixed idea when I travel.

It happens when I'm there.

Then I start to gather impressions,

almost like sketches.

They aren't finished photos.

Tobias Faber, Rector of

the Academy of Fine Arts, asked -

- if I wanted to come work

at the Academy.

So I became a secretary

to Tyge Arnfred.

The professors were men.

And the teachers were men.

The secretarial workers

were primarily women.

I had to change from the photographer's

union to another union for that job.

People were aware that I had

other talents than secretarial work -

- which I didn't have a talent for.

I moved my entire darkroom

to the Academy.

I taught the foundational courses,

and we took pictures of Copenhagen -

- and I taught them about

developing and exhibiting.

That was in fact my function.

And when the various rectors

were to be photographed -

- so they could be hung

like the prime misters in Parliament -

- I was the one

who took their portraits.

The portraits of the rectors

were done by me.

I thought it was amazing to do -

- but I was only paid as a secretary.

I don't know why I put up with all that.

But I did.

People say, 'It must be exciting

to photograph something unexpected.'

And I say, 'No, no, no.'

I know exactly what I get.

What you don't see

is what's inside the box.

So now I don't see that.

Now I want some more, so I step back.

You get used to holding it

at different distances.

What you don't see is what you get.

- I don't want to be in your way.

- I'm filming you.

Oh, okay.

In the meantime I met my husband,

whom I married before long.

We were looking through our diaries.

And the man who I had married

had been in India -

- and had travelled to Ceylon

to attend some lectures.

And that had happened right by

the bridge we built for the film.

And we had been there on exactly

the same days at the same place.

Just like my chauffeur had predicted -

- the person I would marry

was just around the corner.

Several years had passed,

and it was him all along.

I've been married twice,

and I have three kids.

I'm almost done living in Allerød.

I've lived here for almost 63 years,

I believe.

I've wanted to try living

in Copenhagen for a long time.

I finally went through with it

and got a lovely flat.

I've chosen

to take all my pictures with me.

I'm in my new flat

which I am so happy with.

I look forward to unpacking

and setting up my workspace -

- and getting back into making photos.

The most important thing for me -

- was to be able to continue

taking photos and exhibiting.

And to just keep working.

I wonder what these are used for.

This is the best angle.

It looks like an old temple.

It's very sort of...

It's very masculine, if I'm allowed

to say that. It looks quite forceful.

Almost brutal.

Wow, this is gorgeous.

I like things

that are large and powerful.

I got to know Richard Winther

through mutual friends.

When he heard I was a photographer,

he wanted me to work with him.

That's what we did

in the early and mid-1970s.

He very much wanted to be

photographed, which comes across.

He's right in his element.

Photographers

don't usually work together.

There's always the photographer

and the assistants.

The photographer works with the model.

That's where the collaboration happens.

It's not with other photographers.

We were just the two of us, so

we were able to make these tableaus.

We were the subjects.

It was a very good collaboration.

If photos were taken with his camera,

he developed the film and made the copy.

Only rarely

would he reluctantly give me one -

- even though I had helped make them.

I was a bit cross about that.

I wrote him a letter

where I asked him to give me -

- the series called 'The Milk Maid'.

That made him very, very angry.

I thought it was odd

that he didn't want to give me that.

Then he came to visit

and gave me this painting.

I was very grateful for that.

Then he asked me

if I could see what it was.

I said, 'Yes, it looks like someone

is stirring or cooking something there.'

'And that's the painter.'

'Yes, that's it.'

'And that's you,

always stirring the cooking pots.'

'And those are the big visions

flying over your head.'

This one is quite humorous.

Here he is

reading with his glasses on -

- while the lion is busy

fornicating with the girl.

That's a fun one.

Danish light is very different

from American light.

I still believe that the reason

I'm so fascinated by light -

- is because in the bedroom

that I shared with my sister -

- we had one of those big skylights.

You could see the sky and the clouds

and watch the world getting darker.

I've always been fascinated

by what light does to things.

It's the light

that gives shape to things.

I read the light with my eyes.

That's why I like the pinhole camera.

I can build the light.

Layer, by layer, by layer.

I wanted to organise my archives

and decided to give away everything -

- to those who might be interested.

What should I do with these?

No one would be interested.

I don't photograph anymore, but when

others do, I can't resist giving advice:

'If you stand further to the left,

it will look completely different.'

These are for an exhibit

at Esbjerg Library.

Your job is to help me select

the ones you think are suitable.

I know this is usually

Tove Kurtzweil's job.

It's sad that she can't

be here any longer.

Yes, it's sad that she can't be here,

but it's good of you to fill her shoes.

At an exhibit in Iceland,

someone said:

'Wow, that almost looks like an erotic

scene with the male approaching.'

I hadn't thought of that myself.

When I started photographing fish -

- they always looked like food,

no matter what I did.

So I had to place them somewhere

you never see fish.

I don't like that. We'll have to

arrange it in a different way.

We could put those

on top of each other.

- Like this, right?

- Yes, let's do that.

So it's those two and these four.

I wasn't sure about these ones,

but when we put them in the middle...

That's what I thought.

You created this midline.

Yes, and the reason for that

is that this top height -

- is actually parallel to the top height

of those four pieces.

This is just

so I can remember the order.

- Hello, Nanna! It's been so long.

- It has. You look exactly the same.

So do you.

I recognised you straight away.

I think we should give three cheers

for this great adventurer.

Well,

actually we'll be giving 90 cheers.

I'm going to yell, 'hur!'

and you'll yell, 'rah!'

- Okay.

- Got it?

Huuuuuuuurraaaaaaah!

Huuuuuuuurraaaaaaah!

Wow, look at this...

'New acquisitions.'

Here it is.

- Thanks to Banja...

- No...

Yes, it most certainly is.

I can now stand next to my name.

I'd look out of those tall windows

at the lake and say:

'Whatever happens,

I want to exhibit here someday.'

How incredible that it came true.

Here. Slow down.

Wow, look at this.

This is incredible.

What an amazing spot.

It's completely unreal.

What a strange feeling

to have my art displayed here.

After wanting it for so many years.

I believed in it, and then I stopped

believing in it, but I kept going.

This is just incredible.

It couldn't be any better than this.

I've thought about going back and

making some of the pinhole pictures -

- to see what I would do

with them today.

Reality isn't super sharp.

I don't experience things

super sharply.

I experience something different

with my senses instead.

In memory of Tove Kurzweil

1938-2018

Thousands of women were pioneers

in fine art photography -

- and kept taking pictures

throughout their long lives.

A few became famous, but most of them

are still waiting to be discovered.

This film is dedicated to them.

Subtitles: Sara Sjölin

Oneliner