Before J-01 Gallery kicks off tonight's exhibition and magazine launch Nevermind, get to know the man behind the lens Robert Nilsson.
Where does your interest in photography come from?
It’s always been about visuals in some form; would say it started with drawing a lot as a kid, to wanting to work with moving images, then graphic design (mostly because of movies, and computers) then eventually settled on photography. This was in high school. Never looked back since. How do you describe your work and aesthetic?
I would say fashion and portraiture, with a mix of documentary, and always more conceptual. The idea and story telling are important to me. Also moving away from retouching images, all the images in this series are untouched, only contrast and colour edits.
How has your practice developed since living in Stockholm and Shanghai?
Think it’s under constant development, would be very disappointed if it wasn’t. I can always see some kind of red line going through. Stockholm and Shanghai are very different cities, quite the opposites really. I think breaking away from, lets call it perfection, and embracing chaos is a big one, seeing the beauty in chaos and mess, which I’m sure Shanghai plays a large role in ;)
What were the similarities and differences in the subjects you shot?
That all the girls are amazing! They’re all different of course, the one main similarity was that no one fixed or cleaned up their apartments before we showed up, meaning it felt all real — I love that fact, meant a lot to me! Coming from a Swedish background, where inviting someone to your home is an event and everything has to be perfect — well it doesn’t. Do you consider Nevermind, a series of work that is finished or will it continue taking place elsewhere?
I hope it will continue in some way, getting a personal glimpse into people’s lives through their homes, objects, clothes, etc., will always be interesting. The project doesn’t need to be connected to one place, we’ve done Shanghai twice since both me and Dre are living here right now. No plans yet.
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