editorial fashion photography | new media by Per Zennstrom

Instagram

Per Zennstrom — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:58:16 +0000

instagram viewer

I have previously written on how Instagram has made me fall in love with photography -again so I will not get into that area too much but rather share something more practical and actionable. I cannot deny that I spend a lot of time on Instagram – I really like it there and I have a feeling that it is a social channel that actually is pretty effective.

Instagram is a mobile-only app. That is, the whole Instagram experience is build from a mobile perspective and meant to be viewed on a mobile device.. It’s just recently after Facebooks bought Intsgram that a desktop version has appeared. Alas, You can’t really do very much Instagramming there, it’s essentially just a window that You peek through into Instagram-land.

So how do You then post non-mobile photos to Instagram?

Well – there is a simple Dropbox workaround (I assume it will work with any other Cloud, such as SkyDrive, Cubby, PogoPlug etc etc…) Just upload the images Youd like to share to Your Cloud of choice that syncs with Your device and then simply open up it up on Your mobile and then take it from there…

There are also a few cool 3d party apps such as Statigram that You can use to add some functionality to Your blog or website. The gallery above for example is created using Statigram and there are a number of other useful tools there as well, as well as some more… well, ahem – let’s just call them fun… (see below)

instgram viewer | Statigram

Per Zennstrom Per Zennstrom editorial fashion photography | new media by Per Zennstrom editorial fashion photography | new media by Per Zennstrom - Contemporary photography, fashion, technology and new media blog

JO! Models Fashion film

Per Zennstrom — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:40:04 +0000

fashion stop motion video

JO! Models Fashion Project from Jenny Jacobsson on Vimeo.

fashion stop motion

Regular readers of this blog might be familiar with the fact that I’m also a sometime guest teacher at some photo schools both in Sweden and Germany. I’m really proud of my fashion photography students Jenny Jacobsson, Joacim Schwartz, Morten Clausen, Nadim Elazzeh and Pernilla Skoglund at Fotoskolan Göteborg who produced this fashion stop motion video during a recent fashion photography workshop that I led. Since I always try to drag reality (kicking and screaming) into the classroom we were very fortunate to be able to hook up with Jenny Bramer and help her with visual material for the rebranding of her modeling agency JO! Models.

Check out some more of their work via Jenny Jacobsson Blog

My students are writing: “We got an assignment to create a still image and video campaign at the prospect of the upcoming relaunch and rebranding of the company JO! Models, former ModelOne. Also, we were creating shots for the model’s portfolio. Production brief: Dynamic, movement, high energy. Cool, streety, sexy, rock’n roll…

Here is our stop motion video! Read more and see the portfolio images at my blog: http://.jennyjacobsson.com/blog

Photography and post production: Jenny Jacobsson, Joacim Schwartz, Morten Clausen, Nadim Elazzeh, Pernilla Skoglund
Project leader / creative director: Per Zennström
Stylist and client: Jennie Bramer
Make up & hair: Jeanette Rokas of Rokas Prestige
Model: Emma of JO! Models”

Really Crazy Colors

Per Zennstrom — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:21:07 +0000

colorful makeup looks

A collaboration with make-up artist Linda Sundqvist

This project came about as a consequence of my work as (sometime) guest teacher and lecturer at Fotoskolan STHLM. I was there for a conversation with the students on fashion photography and since I asked everyone to shoot something I needed to walk the walk myself.

I asked my friend make-up artist Linda Sundqvist to collaborate with me on an idea about throwing pigments and I was very happy when she accepted.
I guess You all have seen the amazing images from the hindu festival Holi were pigments are thrown around – those images became our starting point.

We were very fortunate to be able to have two great New Faces from Mika’s in the studio, the stunning Sofia and fresh faced Astrid.

Spring Studio very generously provided us with one of their spacious studios and all the equipment we asked for. Also a very big “Thank You” to Niclas Blyberg at Molanders who made an extra effort to make sure that we had everything we needed in the studio and who also took the time to explain the intricacies of certain lighting systems to the students.

We ended up with a lot of images and video and even a GIF and I put together a Tumblr site with all the material as an “end product”

colorful makeup looks | Model Sofia at Mika’s by Per Zennstrom

Petro Wodkins – “Paint it White”

Per Zennstrom — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:42:06 +0000

Petro Wodkins versus Petrov-Vodkin – Russian Contemporary Art

Petro Wodkins is a russian artist & musician, exploring modern, contemporary art. He was (re)born early spring 2013. The goal of Petro is to find the core of art, away from the market, the posh galleries and academia.

For some time now I have been involved in an on-going project by russian contemporary artist Petro Wodkins. Not shying away from controversial interventions both on-line and IRL , Petro recently managed to shut down the world renowned Luisiana Art Museeum for about 5 mins.

… from the project “Paint it White” by russian contemporary artist Petro Wodkins

For the “paint it White” session Petro had procured a black BMW that within 24 hrs. had been metamorphosed into a totally white car, from the inside out.

A telling and interesting aspect of Petro’s work is his name – Petro Wodkins. This is an allusion to the artist Petrov-Vodkin that lived some100 years ago. One of the aspects of Petro-Vodkin’s work was that he was critized for his work being “too erotic” and he was in conflict with the religious authorities of the Russian Orthodox Church. The latter of course takes advantage of all this and It could be very tempting to dismiss the rather flamboyant Petro as a loudmouth and trixter but once You start to scratch the surface a more nuanced and multi-layered image appears of a very thoughtful and complex artist with a mature understanding of his own role on the art scene and his relations to other artists and players.

The shooting itself was pretty straightforward and fast since our models were painted from head to toe in white paint and we needed to shoot while the paint was still “wet and fresh”. The main image happened at the end, almost as an afterthought and it grew on me later on in the edit. Me personally had some other favorites but in the end the image of Petro throwing paint won out.

… after the shooting of “Paint it White”

Mounir Fatmi: Sleep (Al Naim)

Per Zennstrom — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:50:11 +0000

: Tilda Swinton sleeping at MoMA

Salman Rushdie sleeps in 3D

Mounir Fatmi: Sleep (Al Naim) on Nowness.com

Salman Rushdie sleeps in 3D – A brilliant 3D piece by Mounir Fatmi depicting Salman Rushdi sleeping for 6 hours echoing Andy Warhol’s famous “Sleep”
Rife with conflicting emotions such as violence, death and gentle peace I cannot get the image of the enbalmed Lenin out of my head.

The full six-hour-long video was ironically censored at a show at l’Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris last year, but will premiere this week at Paradise Row as part of his solo exhibition History is Not Mine. “Rushdie lives between different worlds, between countries, between life and death,” says Fatmi. “It is at once boring and voyeuristic to look at someone sleeping for six hours. I want the audience to feel guilty about Rushdie’s destiny.”

The scene is illuminated by a soft and classical light which just increases the timelessness of this piece. The film moves on and transcends into digital sculpture.

Now, Salman Rushdi is not the only cultural superstar sleeping in public. Tilda Swinton is currently appearing inside a glassbox at MoMA.

Berlin Slow Snow

Per Zennstrom — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:22:12 +0000

Berlin Slow Snow

Now that spring and reasonable temperatures have finally arrived here in Berlin I thought it be approprite to post a short snow video I made one night while #walkingthedog
This is really just a short, sweet nothing that I happen to like very much.
Shot with my #SamsungS3 (the best camera is the one You have in your pocket)

Instagram has made me fall in love with photography – again and again…

Per Zennstrom — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:46:38 +0000

How Instagram made me fall in love with photography – again and again

Instagram Photography

Much has been written about Instagram and the use of filters and how that supposedly cheapens the art of photography by making it possible for anyone to make an image that starts to resemble a good image. Note that the critics means that the Instagrams are not good photography, they just start to resemble that.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this debate, not the least the issue of analogue=nostalgia vs. digital=soulless and why so many people seem to say that retro/analougue technology is more real, honest or whatever…

Jörg Colberg wrote an excellent article on just this issue on his blog Conscientious which I highly recommend anyone interested in more.

In this post I’m just referencing to my own experience and how Instagram made me fall in love with photography – again and again…

To cut to the chase, I’m left with a feeling that Instagram has made me appreciate and pick-up my camera to record all those fleeting and possibly meaningless images that I earlier might not have shot. These moment now gets captured whereas earlier I might not have bothered.

This situation reminds me a lot of a pivotal moment I had when I published my very first blogpost and instinctively (not just intellectually) realized that “everything has changed” when it comes to teling your story. By making so frictionless and easy to publish and share images Instagram, in my view, has unleashed this massive flood of new photography – which is a good thing. I personally feel that having this new platform where it’s OK to show and share images that serves no real purpose, Instagram has given me green light to take my photography less serious – which also is a good thing.

The combination of a good camera in my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S3) and the ease of sharing is very powerful and in that context the so far unsuccessful Samsung Galaxy Android camera makes 100% sense to me

The Instagram platform is potentially very powerful coupled with some 3rd party solutions such as Nitrogram, see my Gallery above

Bentley – For Men

Per Zennstrom — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:34:07 +0000

Bentley Fragrance

Bentley – the epitome of all things luxuriously British , is premiering it’s first fragrance and fashion photographer Per Zennstrom was entrusted with shooting the visual for this campaign. Set on a rooftop overlooking the British capital the image is an amalgam of those elusive and subtle qualities that has turned Great Britain into Cool Britannia.

How do You make an omelette without breaking the egg?

Or… -How does an iconic brand like Bentley project attitude, relevance and energy while still respecting it’s heritage? Those where the questions that swirled around while we discussed the image that I had the pleasure to shoot recently for the premiere of Bentley’s first fragrance.

Creative Director Torsten Birk-Schöps at KeKo envisioned a chic and timeless scenario where the London skyline was prominently displayed along with a Bentley Continental GT Coupe which was treated somewhat unceremonious, much like an umbrella, casually carried under the arm.

Male model Vegard, represented by Modelwerk took on the role of the eternal british gentleman – minus the bowler, projecting that effortless and timeless british chic that we all have come to aspire to.

Christian Stemmler, a longtime collaborator brought his styling expertise to the table, and Jochen Pahs was responsible for the grooming.

“The fragrance opens with an elegant and rich accord of orris butter and white cedar wood. The woody notes of sensual patchouli and creative papyrus bring a charismatic and modern heart. The luxurious, carnal and unique base notes of dry amber and musk come together to create the ideal masculine fragrance for a collector’s item. Created by Mylène Alran, Robertet France. Her passion for deep and woody notes such as patchouli are very elegant in her new creation. The natural raw materials are for her a limitless source of inspiration which accompanying her in all creations.” – YesICannes

Cry California – HertzBlut

Per Zennstrom — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:11:35 +0000

Post Punk-Industrial Ambient by HertzBlut

How to rank #1 in a Google search

Per Zennstrom — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:15:00 +0000

rank 1 google

rank 1 google – For those of You who might have been reading this blog for a while this post might not be so surprising given my long interest in SEO and how to take advantage of all the free resources that are available to us. In this post I’ll try to describe my own personal journey in SEO land and how I now rank #1 in google searches for some of my selected keyword strings. I have put together a short list with my own top advice for what You (as a photographer with limited time and resources) can do to possibly rank higher. This might not be the typical SEO tips You’ll see going to typical SEO blogs but rather advice drawn from my own, very un-scientific, experience.

Inform Yourself I first became aware of the term Search Engine Optimization about 2-3 years ago and slowly but surely started to understand the importance of this to drive relevant traffic to my site. It all started when I came across marketing platform HubSpot and started to read their insightful posts and devouring all the excellent and free advice they constantly pour out. Take a look for yourself at all their free tools and resources… Another fun thing to start with is to check Your website’s overall marketing health taking a “holistic” approach.

Start a blog … use WordPress, period…

Define Your niche … and build a mental image of who You would like to engage with. Who is Your customer ? Who will make the call to book You?

Define 5-10 relevant key words strings …after some thought and research I settled on the following search queries based on who I am as a photographer and what I believe people see in my work. Contemporary Fashion Photography, Modern Fashion Photography, Creative Fashion Photography All these queries have variations such as photography-photographer-photographers. Use the free Google KeyWord Tool to find out more about Your keywords. The word I’d like to stress here is Relevance!

Make sure that the search queries You’ve chosen are relevant to what You are and what You’re trying to rank for.

Pick realistic search queries … It’s easier to rank for a more specialized, narrower query than a more generic one. Also a more niche query is probably more relevant, if you have done your homework correctly. I think the image below says it all

How to rank #1 in a Google search

Get on Google+ While the debate is raging about Google+’s futura and relevance (the Ghost town debate) no-one is denying the fact that G+ has a big impact on SEO. If You’re active on G+ and post relevant stuff that will definitely help You. I’m a big Google fan and apart from the SEO benefits I’m absolutely amazed over all the free tools and resources I get from them as a small business owner. Here my Google+ precense

Earn backlinks … make sure that You publish useful content that people have a reason to recommend, link back to and generally share with their networks. Links back to your site are golden, especially if the source is respected and relevant. Stay away from link-farms and “too-good-to-be-true” schemes. Google is pretty good at sniffing out iffy practices and will punish You for that.

Think like a publisher - “Marketers go into an endeavor with the mindset of “what can I get out of this?” Publishers, on the other hand, think more along the lines of “what can I give my audience that’s interesting, relevant, and engaging?” In other words You’ve gotta give to get – sounds familiar, right ?

For more tips on my digital tool check out “Top 15 Digital Tools and resources for a photographer”