Photographer
Steen Andersen
Born in Denmark 1938 and lived in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Educated in The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1959, graduated in architecture m.a.a. from School of Architecture in Aarhus 1969 followed by 3 years candidate science research project. Established own buisiness as architect for 11 years.
I have been in charge of or implicated in 21 bigger projects of culture in Denmark since 1978, some supported by danish ministries, some by local authorities.
I have as chairman for the association Croquis Grotesque in Aarhus since 1992 been responsible for exhibitions with about 90 photographers, professionals as well as advanced amateurs.
As an autodidakt photographer I had my studio in Aarhus centre from 1980 to 1997, and it has always been a meeting point for a lot of people connected to photography, visual art and projects of culture. Since 1998 my studio are placed nearby in my living house.
For 20 years, I've worked professionally with the art of photography.
Still, I have not - neither abroad nor at home - had my photos published in the media.
The reason for that could be that I've never been interested in nor been talented with the gift of selling myself, travelling around with my portfolio, asking if anyone would be interested in buying my pictures.
I have through the years had around 30 exhibitions, group exhibitions as well as seperate exhibitions and censured exhibitions, in Denmark as well as abroad.
I have arranged and managed culture exchange activities with east european countries including cooperation with easteuropean photographers - this projects have been supported from danish ministries of culture and of forreign affairs.
An official supported exhibition with 60 big prints has been shown in Havana and other Cuban cities and is now travelling in the countries on the ibero-american continent via the organizations "Fondo Cubano de la Imagen Fotográfica" and "The Iberoamerican Fund of Photography". I hope so. I have lost track of the exhibition and have given up getting it back.
I am one of three originators of the portal project PhotoMondo on this website (further information available on the portal site, menu button "More about PhotoMondo").
By this web gallery, I address media persons and other professional users of visual arts in the hope that my photos will be published in a larger context. Hopefully, a wide variety of curators, collectors, museum inspectors, illustration editors, publishers or art directors will find the presentation of my images inspiring and interesting.
I also hope for contact with an image interested audience who would like to order personal photography or buy original prints, art posters or print-yourself files of my photos.
Here my curriculum vitae only render a short view of relevant professional connections in my life with photography. If you are interested in learning more about my professional work, please feel free to e-mail me. Among others, my professional activities include education, architecture, planning, teaching, project management, graphics, design and cultural projects.
In the past 40-50 years, the colour picture has gradually taken over from the black and white pictures. The colour image is everywhere on TV and in films, in computer games, the press, magazines and books - in every visual media. Concurrently, the amount of colour pictures has risen explosively. Just think about the development in the line of advertising business.
After the Internet took over the stage as the image media interlarded with information, the screw has been given another turn and the picture's position as the most important traversing international language is now indisputable.
Today, pictures - and not only the written or spoken word - determine politics, intervene against catastrophes and start or stop wars. The iconography of the picture is the foundation of the navigation, choices and actions of modern man.
Based on these settings, the black and white picture has gained another meaning than merely a picture lacking colours - an condensed meaning giving other opportunities than the colour picture.
Only seldom have I worked with colour photography. My photos have, until now, nearly always been black and white. I have my reasons. Working with staged photography - a kind of image theatre - the black and white pictures give the viewer far better chances of reading the picture, focusing on the contents, creating associations, and of interpreting what he sees by himself.
This way it seems that a black and white photography in some contexts contains more colours than colour photography. Somehow, a black and white picture narrates a larger, or somehow a more dramatic story and thus appeals to the imagination by far. Thus the black and white photo will in my work appear more relevant than the color photo.
I will, however, not rule out the possibility that I may present photo experiments in colour. I am sure that colours can create moods that black and white picture cannot. I may cross that border one day and explore the possibilities in depth.
Only a minor number of my work is shown on the gallery here. It is a presentation of my pictures and not a photo archive. The exhibited pictures will be renewed and added to in order to maintain the interest for a dynamic site. Hence, the number of pictures and the changes of themes will vary.
Since I started working professionally with photography back in 1984, my production now counts 60,000 negatives.
At the moment I am evaluating the entire collection and expect in a couple of years to have finished this quality control.
My guess is that my thorough quality examination will lead to a collection of approximately 2000 specially chosen pictures - there is no need to save neither negatives not corresponding with my criteria of quality.
With the passage of time, I have worked quite a lot with theatre photography with both established theatres and underground and street theatres. The main part of my
work revolves around my "private theatre" with naked or dressed up persons, where I focus on intensity, sensual story telling and erotic atmospheres.
When men at rare intervals play a part in my pictures they most often act as mere extras - women are far funnier and more liberated to work with. Naturally, women are also by far superior to men in their beauty J
My ambition with the gallery is to have people inquire about my work, to sell my images and to participate in quality exhibitions. However, no matter what the outcome may be, it has been a great pleasure for me to have opened this gate to my very own exhibition of works spanning over 20 years of passion and creativity. Naturally, this way of exhibiting my portfolio saves me from many expenses and much valuable time in the darkroom. Now, all I need to do is to direct to this site.
My pictures are staged photography which depicts an image creative process where the photographer both creates the idea and the script. The photographer is the instructor, the models the actors. Among my work, a fine selection of photographic situations is based on the models' own ideas and spontaneous thoughts.
In staged photography, you can either play yourself or another part agreed upon based on a superior idea. Chastity caused by nakedness or acting disappear either partly or fully when you are obsessed with work itself.
Staged photography calls for at certain degree of preparation, planning and discussion between model and photographer. Not until we have agreed upon a plan that suits both parts do the takings start. Before reaching the proper expression, several shootings may be necessary. Practice and agreement are important to the outcome - you re-try different takings of the situation. Sometimes it happens that an aberration or intermission along the way touch on a feeling and a quality which is convincing even though it may be outside the original idea.
Often I have sketched my picture suggestions as part of the work process. Some of these sketches are displayed here.
My models work voluntarily based on their own wishes and needs.
In my work, I make no distinct selection regarding neither beauty ideals nor age. Personality, however, is of importance to me.
Often I have sketched my picture suggestions as part of the work process: 
All my images are model released by agreement before we even start to work.
None of my models in Denmark receive fees for their work. Sometimes the models find their way to me, sometimes the other way around. Mostly the contact is created due to acquaintances, professional relations, friends of friends or persons who have seen my work at exhibitions or in similar contexts. At times the modelling can be commissioned which is often the case with pregnancy pictures or portraits - also a kind of staged photography.
When the model and I have agreed on the terms of our team work, we both sign an agreement of confidentiality.The agreement determines that pictures I would like to use publicly must be approved by the model on beforehand. Pictures that are not approved are destroyed. Commissioned pictures are the ownership of the model and cannot be used publicly unless a specific agreement is present.
I carry out my work in either my studio or on location in places I find suitable. From 1980 to 1998, I had a large, beautiful studio situated in one of the old streets of the heart of Aarhus, converted from a carpenter's workshop above a former horsestable.
In 1998 - when a floor became vacant in my family's city house - I fitted up my studio here, in the street of Lollandsgade dating back to the 1860s. 
My studio 1980-1998
The studio is not very large, but on the other hand I've made myself a much better and spacious darkroom. This fits nicely with the way my photography has developed. Where I formerly made photographic orchestra music, I now compose chamber music. Years ago, my studio would teem with models, assistants, students, artists and culture persons. Now, with less studio space, it fits well with my increasing need for peace and immersion in my work.
When at times I need more space, I use the family's weekend cottage built in 1997 in a beautifully scenic spot.
The cottage is high-ceilinged with its 4.5 metres and has plenty of daylight. It is also a wonderful place during winter time if you are prepared to use five hours heating up the house using the wood burningstove - the only source of heat. The cottage functions perfectly as a studio, and is only three quarters' drive away from Aarhus.
Simply because a photography is black and white doesn't mean it is art. It only becomes art when it complies with the same criteria and quality demands put to all arts. These criteria are not strictly objective - they can vary according to professional background and skills, attitude, tradition and preferences with the persons judging art.
To me, however, some general measurements prevail although they may be difficult to specify in details. Photography is art if the artist is photographer, and if the photography
- expresses both personal and general issues
- relates to aesthetic valuations
- creates associations with the viewer
- contains a story that will be remembered and that reaches beyond the very limitations of the physical picture surface.
Let other decide if my photos meet theese conditions. The discussion of art is, nevertheless, an ever ongoing and important discussion. Art-minded readers who can confirm, add to or refute these points of view are very welcome to contact me. The various points of view may be published on PhotoMondo at a later stage.
These days the internet and image bureaus are flooded with indifferent photographic material delivered in a constant stream from persons equipped only with a computer and a digital camera. Anyone can claim to be a photographer. It has become too easy because there are no demands, no filters and no quality standards to be fulfilled before you are allowed to publish your pictures - free of charge. With the expanding amount of photographic material the price for proper photography will decrease proportionally. The amount of valueless photographic material flows as lava in multicolour.
More than ever, there is a need for quality evaluation and support to art and quality photography to prevent it from drowning in the flooding.
All photographic craftsmanship is carried out by my self in the darkroom. The chemistry used includes Tetenal, Illford, Agfa and Kodak. Film material varies, but mainly I use Kodak and Illford. Normally, I use 400 iso films with daylight as primary source of light. Daylight has all the qualities and exceptional atmospheres that best suit my way of working.
The paper used is Illford/Agfa multigrade, heavy fiber base baryta paper with a glossy surface that air dries. Still wet, large format pictures are strapped on to glass sheets with old fashioned paper tape with water-soluble glue - just like when you use water-colour paper. The enlarger is a Beseler 45 MXT which I've used for the past 20 years. The light head is a tungsten bulb.
The format of negatives used are 24 x 36mm, 45 x 60 mm and 60 x 70 mm. Cameras used are Leica M4, Pentax 45, Mamiya 67 and Nikon D100. Proofs come in size 18 x 24cm. After the work, my model will get the proofs. I never do contact copies - they do not reveal more than a negative cannot reveal better. I never crop my pictures - the entire picture scope must be part of the contents and composition of the picture. If not, the picture is descarded.
Archive and exhibition prints as well as prints for sale are printed on heavy baryta paper in museum standard quality-demands. Digital image files for sale respond to the standards described in the Digital Delivery Instruction from the danish press photographers union,
www.pressefotografforbundet.dk.
Please note that black and white pictures in low resolution used for websites have enhanced contrasts, lack some finer nuances in both shadows and high-lights, and are thus more massive than the original print or the high resolution images.
All photos are copyright©. You are welcome to download the photos for layout purposes and for own use only, by using the site's printing function, or by print out a catalog as an pdf-file. About rights and responsibility, klick the menu button RIGHTS).
For the benefit of a photo interested audience that may find large handmade original prints too costly, a poster service has been set up in cooperation with a repro company. Thus the majority of my works will be available for 60 x 80 cm art reproduction prints, i.e., corresponding to the size of a large standard frame.
All posters will be numbered and signed, and sent by ordinary mail in a sturdy, closed cardboard tube. Posters are made as light lasting colour prints even though the original negatives are black and white. This method provides the best graduation of shadows and highlights, and hence a high quality photo reproduction.
How to order:
The price of one photo poster is EUR 80.00 (approx. DKK 600.00) + VAT + shipment. Prices of larger volumes are negotiable by email.
The selection and order forms are easily handled. The following will take you through the ordering procedure step-by-step:
- Highlight the 'order' (left hand menu) by clicking. An add/buy menu will appear to the right
- Choose a photo from the strip and click 'add' in the add/buy menu
- A new window pops up and you are required to make all appropriate selections. Clicking the 'select' button will transfer a thumbnail with selected details to the add/buy menu (your shopping list)
- Click 'buy' when finished selecting photos and the order form will pop up. Fill in all necessary details carefully. Important!! PRINT before sending to preserve a copy, as your order is currently NOT saved in the system.
- Click 'send order' and your order is forwarded by email. You will receive an order confirmation with payment details as soon as possible
- Orders are shipped as soon as your payment is registered. Please note that delivery will take approximately two weeks if print processing is required
Fair shares of PhotoMondo's audience are collectors. As a collector, you can not always afford to pay for handmade original prints. Allow me to suggest a low-cost solution.
First of all, you buy a digital photo file to the price of 27 EUR (approx. DKK 200.00). The order procedure is the same as the one described under posters. You will receive the photo file by e-mail.
Then you use your private photo printer to print the photo in A4 format as many times you like - as long as the prints are for private use only.
You are not allowed to use the photo for commercial purposes of any kind (see under RIGHTS), but you may use is for private gifts.
After you are done using the photo file, make sure to delete it.
You may neither keep it on your computer, copy it onto other media, for example onto a CD, nor pass it on to other persons.
Misuse of these terms will be met with claims for damages.
PhotoMondo are going to develop a list of links to quality photography. The purpose is to procure contacts between Danish, Nordic, European and international photographers, organizations, media and buyers of photos.
Besides, this should as well support a sound hit rate in various search engines for PhotoMondo and the connected photographers.
As far as possible, the links should be reciprocal. Therefore, it will take a while before the list is complete, and the preferred sites have been contacted with success. The links may include photographers, museums, image bureaus and media, and will be uploaded as the agreements come about.
PhotoMondo would be pleased to receive a mail from you if you are interested in our concept along with suggestions to relevant links.
Links can be found on the portal site, menu: News and links.
Fotografen har den ubegrænsede ophavsret (copyright ©) til alle sine billeder.
Når billeder sælges, er det brugsretten, der sælges til en aftalt brug.
Ophavsretten følger den til enhver tid gældende lovgivning i fotografens hjemland og er herunder omtalt i de væsentligste træk.
Regler for køb og salg af billeder:
- Fotografen har det fulde ansvar for at billeder og tekster på dette site kan offentliggøres og ikke derved strider imod gældende lovgivning eller krænker 3' parts rettigheder.
- Køber har det fulde ansvar for at billederne ikke anvendes i sammenhænge, der strider imod gældende lovgivning eller krænker 3' parts rettigheder.
- Køb/salg samt brug af billeder er alene en sag mellem fotograf og køber og er PhotoMondo uvedkommende økonomisk og juridisk.
- Billeder downloaded/udprintet/kopieret fra PhotoMondo (f.eks. pdf-kataloger) er omfattet af copyright©, men må anvendes frit til layoutformål og anden intern brug.
- Tekster og skærmdumps fra PhotoMondo må anvendes med kildeangivelse.
- Købere må kun anvende billeder til den aftalte brug og må ikke sælge eller videregive elektroniske billedfiler til 3' part.
- Køber af originale prints (papirbilleder) må ikke scanne disse til elektroniske billedfiler.
- Køber må ikke arkivere elektroniske billedfiler udover den brug, som købet er aftalt for.
- Køber må ikke anvende billeder i utilbørlige mediemæssige eller tekstlige sammenhænge.
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My ambition with the site is to have people inquire about my work, to sell my images and to participate in quality exhibitions. However, no matter what the outcome may be, it has been a great pleasure for me to have opened this gate to my very own exhibition of works spanning over 20 years of passion and creativity.
Naturally, this way of exhibiting my portfolio saves me from many expenses and much time in the darkroom. Now, all I need to do is to direct to this site.
It goes without saying that I am keen to get in contact with an art-minded audience, who by chance would like to invest in certain portraits, or simply buy original prints or art posters of my pictures.
But above all, I address media persons and other professional users of visual arts in the hope that my photos will be published in a larger context. Hopefully, a wide variety of curators, collectors, museum inspectors, illustration editors, publishers or art directors will find the presentation of my images inspiring and interesting.
