Place you live: Gothenburg

Place your Instagrams were taken? Many of them are taken in Malmö in southern Sweden but the latest ones are taken in the city I currently live which is Gothenburg.

Can you sum up Gothenburg? Gothenburg is stylish and rainy.

What is a perfect day in your spot? Waking up after a good night’s sleep; not having any fixed plans for the day and making some strong coffee. Hopefully when I look out of the window there is fog covering Gothenburg. Mist and fog is the most inspiring weather to me. I’d pack my gear and take the tram to the archipelago.

If Gothenburg was a person or character who would it be and why? Some kind of melancholic old fisherman, missing the old days. His face would be filled with wrinkles caused by a life at sea. This is a description I find beautiful and also something I try to explore in my photography.

How long have you been using Instagram? My first post is from 95 weeks ago, so I’ve been on Instagram for less than two years.

Do you shoot with your phone or other cameras or both? For work or school assignments I use my full frame Nikon. However, that camera and all the lenses are quite heavy so when I’m walking around capturing the city or nature, I tend to leave the heavy gear at home and just use my iPhone5.

What is your editing process? For Instagram I shoot and edit with VSCOcam. Initially, I fix the light and contrast. -These are the two most important editing tools. Afterwards, I browse around the different filters to see if they can enhance what I want to communicate with the specific image. I never overdo the editing. That goes for both cell phone images and DSLR shots. If the image isn’t nicely photographed from the beginning, I try to learn from that and move on.

Do you create images outside of Instagram? Yes, I am a student of professional photography here in Gothenburg. We have school assignments every week so I make a lot of pictures for that purpose. I also do work for clients, mostly portraits. Portraiture is what fascinates me the most in photography. My aim is working as a portrait photographer for magazines.

Has Instagram/phoneography affected how you shoot? It sure has! It’s something of a cliché but Instagram really has opened up my eyes to how much there is to photograph. It has shown me the variety of things one can photograph. Before Instagram, I didn’t care about taking pictures of nature and environment, but now I do it a lot. Also, the way I photograph with the phone differs from a more heavy camera. I’m physically more flexible when shooting with my phone. That creates a different and stronger presence between me and the environment I’m in. I also noticed the same thing when it comes to taking portraits of people I meet on the street. It’s less risky getting uncomfortable with a small iPhone camera than having a huge camera.

Can you give a couple tips to aspiring Instagram photographers? Practice, work hard and be curious. Curiosity is a virtue. Go closer and try to listen to what YOU find interesting, not your potential followers.

Who are your three favorite Instagrammers? No one mentioned, no one excluded. But generally, people with a varied feed and those that aren’t afraid of approaching others.

instagram.com/viktor.holm

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