CASPER SLBERG

PHOTOGRAPHY 2005-2010

WRECKAGE

PHOTOGRAPHS OF STRANDED HARDWARE

SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE WESTCOAST OF JUTLAND, DENMARK.

2006-2010.

WRECKAGE #007, Tornby Strand, autumn 2007

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WRECKAGE #008 Fjand Strand, summer 2008

15

WRECKAGE #015, Nr. Lyngby Strand, spring 2007

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WRECKAGE #030, Hanstholm Strand, spring 2010

35

GRAINS

PHOTOGRAPHS OF SAND

SHOT ON LOCATION IN NORTHERN JUTLAND, DENMARK.

2008-2010.

GRAINS #003, Nrlev Strand, autumn 2008

42

GRAINS #004, Kjul Strand, autumn 2008

43

ROOTS

PHOTOGRAPHS OF TREE ROOTS

SHOT ON LOCATION IN SMLAND, SWEDEN.

SUMMER 2008

ROOTS #001, Mariannelund, summer 2008

62

ROOTS #002, Mariannelund, summer 2008

63

Who hasnt felt like wreckage?In this interview the the London based journalist Palle Hansen talks to the Danish photographer Casper Slberg about his photographic work.

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Tell us a little bit about how your work with the trilogy got started?

Quite accidentally in fact. I almost fell over a piece of wreckage at my favorite beach, took a picture of it and kicked it away. Afterwards I realized that I had destroyed some rare beauty. I didnt think more about it for a couple years unless of course when I secretly took more wreckage shots. Two years later I had a few lucky moments in Photo-shop and the whole look of the series was made.

How much do you owe to the photoshopping of the Wreck-age series?

A lot of course. It pronoun-ces the beauty and makes it more visible - like adverti-sing images. But its all there in the originals. And a lot of Photoshop cant make a good Wreckage-photo I trashed more than twenty pictures which just didnt have it. That goes for the ones where I tried to hard with the camera as well.

What about Grains?

That was quite accidental as

well. In fact I went windsur-fing at my favourite beach like Ive done for twenty years, but suddenly I found myself in a wet suit taking pictures of sand patterns that I wouldnt even have noticed two years before. Later the son of some good friends looked in my camera and said out loud: It looks just like the Earth seen from the sky - and in fact thats just what they are even though my camera is only 1,89 meters above the ground.

Roots then was that more conscious?

In fact no. I was sitting on the ground in Sweden relaxing and then the roots just sud-denly seemed to float like lava across the ground. I just started to run around taking pictures for an hour or so and kept on doing that for a couple of days. But I didnt have any artistic intentions or ambitions when I recorded the first shots in any of the three series. Is it correct that the artistic part of your trilogy is done more in Photoshop than with your camera?

Yes and no. Of course with out Photoshop the images wouldnt be beautiful enough

and after all that is an impor-tant part of art and certainly photography. But on the other side it wouldnt be possible to make beautiful art out of something with out any sub-stance.

What about the chronology?

As mentioned before Wreck-age was the first series and my first exhibitions where fin-ished even before Grains and Roots was shot and in fact Roots was recorded before Grains. But for a couple of years I have been working on both Wreckage and Grains. Wreckage started out with 15 works, and now has 26 pieces - good wreckage just kept on stranding.

Was it your intention to make a trilogy?

No not at all. It wasnt until last year that I became conscious about the crossing points of the three series and saw their potential together even though I think they are good apart as well. So the chronology in the book is more like the steps they came in and in the nature of the raw material being the shots and the subjects.

You seem a little reluctant to

comment on the content and thematics of the series?

Well I am. I wouldnt lock any interpretations because for me works of art should evoke thoughts and emotions and I wouldnt want to stop that process. But there is an ele-ment of time in it as well. For me Wreckage now is more about types of sand than about the wreckage itself. Overall I personally think that you have to notice the similarities be-tweens how nature shapes the sand, the roots and the wreck-age there lies the real beauty in the trilogy for me, and this is something I didnt realize before. What about pollution and Wreckage?

A lot of people talk about pol-lution and environment in rela-tion to Wreckage and even though its not intended from my side it is there but it was the chance of beauty, the col-lapse of design and the visual qualities I focused on in the beginning. Of course theres more to it than that, but Im not necessarily the right per-son to ask since a good friend of mine led me to the core of it writing: After all who hasnt felt like wreckage...? Stranded

and out of context and mean-ing ... I think that beauty is what its all about and also how I personally felt at that time.

What will be coming from your studio next?

Nothing for a period I think. This trilogy has taken up three years of my creative life and right now I find myself paint-ing still-lifes more than photo-graphing. But I would be sur-prised if I didnt find the time to release a couple of photo art shots from my archive of originals and snapshots. You just have to wait for that urge to make something beauti-ful before it works: It takes 10 minutes for me to make a Wreckage photograph now but it took me two years to make the first one ...

CASPER SLBERG

PHOTOGRAPHY 2005-2010