Chris Keeney Interviews Bosse Blomqvist

Name: Bosse Blomqvist
Hometown: Sweden
Interests: Alternative Process Photography
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/bosseb
Posted: 07.03.08

Introduction Statement
Bosse and I worked on this interview over nine months. During that time, Bosse was more than understanding about letting things happen in their own time. Maybe this is indicative of the type of photography Bosse creates. Nothing is rushed and forced into being… you can see that in his images and the people and place he photographs.

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I still remember the day I first saw some of your amazing large format glass plate portraits. “wow” as they say on Flickr. You seem to freeze a moment in time in a beautifully artful way. Can you please tell me more about how you go into creating these stunning images with this classic alternative process?

Bosse
I have always been fascinated by old photographs, especially portraits, by many reasons. The main one for me is that people in the pictures look so different compared to modern people and to modern photos, mostly because of how their eyes are rendered. I have been thinking about that, and my initial thought when I started to play around with the idea of making “real” vintage photos was to see if I could get the same mood and look, and of course to find out what caused it.

My first thought was to do wet plates, mainly because it was easier to find descriptions on how to actually do it. But I soon realized that it would be almost impossible for me as a private person to get the chemicals needed here in Sweden so I decided to go for dry plates instead. They could give me everything I believed was important for the result I was after; sensitivity only to blue light, low speed when shooting and a glass base.

I had some glass cut up for me and bought a bottle of ordinary liquid emulsion. I thought that was an ok shortcut as I didn’t want to make things too complicated from the start. It was still a lot of experiments and tests to start with though; how to get a good subbing layer on the glass, how to get the emulsion on to the plates in the most easy way, how thick the emulsion layer should be and so on. Luckily, it is easy to wash the emulsion away from a plate when it ends up as a total disaster and the glass can be used for another try. I did that many many times…

The first time I got a usable negative on a plate, where the emulsion didn’t float away from the glass when I developed it and I actually could see what I had taken the picture of, it blew my mind and I had to jump around for a while.

I have now found an easy way to do the whole process, many times by doing things in the opposite way compared to all recommendations. I have also started to mix my own emulsion to get better contrast control as the ready made ones are way too hard.

To sum this up, I believe I now can get something out of my camera that has many of the typical vintage qualities that I looked for from the start and I’m quite happy with that.

Every photographer has a different reason why they take photographs, what is it that inspires you to pick up your camera to start making pictures?

Bosse
Most of the time I just stumble upon my pictures. I love to go walking in the forest or spend time at the seaside, and when going out I usually bring a camera. Especially in the forest having the camera and looking for pictures makes it more of an adventure to be there. Many areas around where I live have been untouched for a rather long time, making the woods more fascinating to walk in. I see trees and stones forming shapes and starting up my imagination, it’s no wonder people used to see trolls and other creatures out there. Especially late evenings before it gets dark something magic happen, both to the light and the surroundings. New shapes appear and you start to hear strange sounds as the wind stops for the night. And being out among the trees just around the time when the night falls, or even after it gets dark, is a special feeling. Scary and soothing at the same time. When it comes to my “vintage” pictures I’m often inspired by looking at old photos, and I try to do that a lot. I believe my daughters are starting to get scared about the amount of old photo books they will have to carry away one day.

There are many amazingly good old photographers. I like, for example, Lewis Carrol and the way he staged the scenes in his photographs to tell small stories. That is something I would like to try more myself. There is also a Swedish female photographer, Lina Jonn, who had a portrait studio in the 1890s. I have one of her original portraits of a man with a giant beard together with a dog. The print is tiny and bleached, but it is a real treasure. Her dedication to run a business and to create great pictures, both documentary ones and good portraits, is fascinating. And just the fact that she was a woman made her sort of an underdog from the beginning, but she made it anyway.

What strikes me most, and really inspires me when looking at old photos, is the enormous control the photographers had over their process to get a technically almost perfect result. How they used the light in beautiful ways, and how they manipulated and worked with both the negative and the final print in the darkroom.

Other times I just get a thought in my head that I have to explore, but most of the time it’s the “stumble upon” part that applies. It may be by using old plates or other material that behaves in an unexpected way, or by finding a fascinating place, or something else that surprises me. I do, however, often revisit places to get a better picture of something that didn’t turn out like I imagined when I took the first photo. I also often find myself being affected by music and getting ideas after listening to something that really talks to me or put me in a certain mood. Or from reading, or looking at paintings or other types of art. Basically anything that affects me.

I noticed you’ve use a lot of different cameras (Lex35, Olympus XA, Lomo LCA, Holga, Lubitel 2, Yashica GSN, Canon AE1, Contax 137, Ikoflex, 9×12cm View Camera, etc) to create your photos with. Out of that list, there must be a few that you enjoying shooting more than others. If so, please tell me more about that.

Bosse
I’m addicted to old mechanical cameras. They are beautiful and often very well made. And they all have their own way to render the world. Some of them in a totally surprising way and some in a more predictable. They must have a certain level of “personality” though. I often find myself being inspired by using a new camera, and I am often surprised over how good the first roll I take with a camera comes out. I guess I focus more on what I’m doing when I don’t know the camera that well.

My favorites at the moment are my trusty old home built 9×12cm view camera, pictured here, just because it’s possible to do almost anything with it while it still is a very basic camera. And then any of my TLR’s. I love to look down on a dull ground glass and to see the world flipped. It feels like it’s easier to compose a picture when left is right and vice versa. They are also quiet and look a bit odd nowadays so most people don’t even realize that you point a camera at them when they see you looking down and doing things with that box hanging on your stomach. And I really like the 6×6cm negative size.

Then, of course, there are all the crappy cameras. Any old camera without or with very limited adjustment possibilities is definitely worth a try. The uncertainty can be very rewarding

Now that the internet has revealed so many wonderful photographers and photos, what is it that keeps you inspired to keep creating photos of you own?

Bosse
I guess just having this enormous source of information and inspiration that the internet is available is very inspiring by itself. It is always possible to find something to be influenced from, and to get new ideas from. In this aspect flickr has been really important to me; I never had the idea of showing what I’m doing to anybody until I stumbled upon this community. And even if I make my pictures for myself first of all, I believe it is important to get feedback on your work to push yourself further along the road. Internet and communities like flickr also makes it very easy to get in touch with other photographers all around the world, something that has been worth a lot when figuring out how to do glass plates for example, and thus providing even more inspiration.

There is also a big difference between creating and consuming something, and I believe the possibility to be creative is something fundamental to being human. Creating something, no matter what or in what way, makes us feel good. Unfortunately a lot of people are limited in this by themselves or by others. I have a favorite story here that was told to me by a kindergarten teacher: The kids were to draw paintings illustrating a story, but one kid refused to do it and said that he was so bad at painting that it was no idea to even try. The teacher finally asked him how he would do if he pretended that he could paint. That made him think for a while and then he started to draw, explaining to the teacher “If I could draw I would do like this and like this…” and so on, until he ended up with a very nice drawing. I think that is quite symptomatic, and it makes me a bit sad that so many people by different reasons decide where their limits are and then never dare to pass the line.

It intrigues me why you would use the photo titled “Wet” as your avatar for your Flickr photostream. Can you tell me why you chose that image and the meaning is has to you?

Bosse
Ha, I simply believe that was the first picture I got my eyes upon when I had to decide for an avatar. I like it though, and I remember shooting it when I just felt for taking photographs but had absolutely no idea about what to shoot. So I took the camera down to my cellar and looked around, and found this. And from that I learned that it’s always possible to find subjects next to you if you look with an open mind. It’s so easy to filter away the things that surround us in everyday life.

Sometimes things just don’t work out like we hoped them to… but in the process, we discovered other ways of creating art. Do you think that now that film cameras are slowly being replaced by digital cameras that some of these “happy accidents” will get lost in the transition?

Bosse
Absolutely, analog and irregular “noise” is something very important for things to feel real. Music that isn’t swaying a little bit looses a lot of that, and I am sure it applies to pictures as well. Long time ago, when digital images started to appear, I worked in a print shop making color separations and preparing pictures to be printed, and I remember that we often commented the digital pictures as being flat and lacking life. I suppose it was this analog noise we were missing.

Using an analog process has so many openings for bad things to happen: the chemicals, the processing by itself, making fingerprints on the negatives or dropping them on the floor etc etc. There are so many unique ways to mess things up that just aren’t possible to recreate or to simulate in a digital workflow, no matter how many Photoshop filters and texture layers we have at hand. I’m not totally against working digital, as it may sound. I scan a lot of my negatives without making any traditional prints from them, and Photoshop can be really good at, for example, pulling something out of underexposed or underdeveloped negatives that wouldn’t be possible to make a wet print from. In the end it is all tools that we use to achieve something and how it’s done doesn’t matter.

But I do believe that imperfections always will be important to add a human touch as we as humans are very far from being perfect

You have so many beautiful images of nature and the outdoors. Some of these pictures give me a dark feeling of solitude and personal reflection. Can you tell me more about how these images came to be

Bosse
Solitude and being by myself is important to me. I grew up on a small farm without any friends nearby or easily available, so from the start I spent a lot of time on my own. By walking around in the forest for example, and I still need a lot of that “alone” time to feel good. And spending time by yourself gives you the time needed to do some personal reflection; there is no way to escape. I can’t tell if the reflections I come up with are any quality ones, but at least they keep me happy with my life as it has turned out this far. Most of the reflections are of the type “I wonder how wet I will get if I don’t manage to jump all the way over this pond?”.

I don’t believe I ever think that I should take a picture illustrating solitude, it is something that just happens. It is more that I try to take pictures that can remind me of places that makes me feel comfortable, and that can put me in a good mood later on when looking at them. I am a bit surprised, but happy if I manage to get as much into them so you and maybe other people can see and feel this as well.

People often ask me what my favorite subject matter is to photograph. People must ask you the same question, if so, what do you tell them?

Sea horizons, trees and stones. Subjects like that must be taken as they are, they don’t complain if it takes a long time to compose the picture or if the camera isn’t loaded with film. And I like the long term perspective a stone or a tree can give us.

I also enjoy to take portraits a lot, but I find that very awkward as I can be a bit shy (understatement, very shy…) when it comes to asking somebody if it is ok to take a picture of them. That goes for family, relatives and friends as well. I am working on it, but I don’t believe I ever will find it easy.

I like how you give personality and spirit to animate objects in some of your photos. Please tell me more about how these photos come to be.

The still life pictures I am most satisfied with are of things I have some sort of relation to. They may have belonged to a relative or connect to my own history in some way. Then it’s actually quite easy most times. The axe was a bit troublesome though, I had to take that picture six or seven times before I got one that I liked. I could say a lot about how things can hold a part of the soul from people that have used or owned them but I don’t believe in that. I think it is more about the feelings and emotions I as a photographer have for and get from certain things, and how I can transfer that into the picture. Hehe, that sounded pretentious enough, didn’t it?

It’s always nice when we’re able to show our work in public and have random people ask us questions about our photographs. I noticed that you and Jack Germsheid showed your photos together at Konstnatten ion sept. What an exciting joining of the minds that must have been. Please tell me more about this relationship and how the show turned out.

Bosse
The whole thing started with a friend of mine, Rikkard who also participated in the show, pushing me to show my pictures. As we had access to much wall space we thought it could be nice to show the work of another photographer as well. And as Jack was a good friend from flickr doing some really outstanding work that I urged to see in real life, I sent him a mail and asked if he would like to take part in it. To my excitement he said yes and sent over some prints. Canada where he lives is far away though so it was not possible for him to get here in person. But by having his prints on the wall at the show his spirit was with us and guided us through the whole event .

It all went well and we had many visitors, and there is a big interest in photography here in Sweden right now so people want to see fine art photos. Konstnatten is an annual event and we will be there this year as well. This time also to my great excitement with Katie Cooke, Heyoka, as the guest artist. And she will probably be at the show in person.

Every photographer has dreams and aspirations for their photography, what are yours?

Bosse
Actually I don’t have very much aspirations except having a good time, at least not if it is about making a living out of my photography. I have a day job that I like and for me photography is something I can do just because I enjoy to take pictures or to be in the darkroom. If I should add the pressure of being dependant to make money from it, I am afraid that a lot of the fun and spontanious parts of it would dissapear. To put it short, it is the “bend over” part I want to avoid.Having said that, I still want to get better at what I am doing and to develop my skills of course, but from my own ideas and thoughts. I have discovered that I like exhibitions and the input I can get from people looking at my stuff and that is something I hope to do more. I have the Konstnatten show coming up now and a small Christmas show at the local library this far, and I will look into what other opportunities I can find

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Closing Statement
Even though I have never met Bosse face to face, I can tell by looking at his images and reading the responses to my questions that he’s a wonderful person. I also know that he’s patient. After all, it took me almost nine months to get my act together to finish this interview. Phew! The whole time, Bosse understood that life can take us on roller coaster rides, which can keep us from the things we love to do. So I want to thank you for your patience, your words and all the wonderful images you have created and are yet to create.

I’m also happy to announce that this is the first interview to be posted in my new blog. Hopefully with time permitting I will migrate the interview I’ve already posted to my old site (chriskeeney.com). Having the interviews on the blog will enable people to make comments along with other benefits associated with the WordPress software.

Now that this interview is done, I will start working on the next one which hopefully wont take me 9 months to complete! Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to hearing from those of you who happen to read the interviews.

All photos © 2008 Bosse Blomqvist and Reproduced by Permission