I participated in a photo contest called Google Photography Prize this week. They received pictures form 20.000 students from all around the world. Ten photographers where chosen as finalists and I was one of them. The price was a all-expenses-paid trip to London and to get some of my photos displayed at Saatchi Gallery in London. A great honour. Even though I did’t win the final prize it was very cool to see my pictures at Saatchi. Story in Dagbladet.

OK, it’s not my favorite camera, but it’s close. (The 5d will always win this battle). The Polaroid SX-70 from the 1970′s is a great camera in many ways. It looks good, takes cool pictures and the pictures are printed instantly. All sounds very good except the film is radically expensive. 8 pictures costs about 24 dollars form The impossible project. And that’s not including tax and shipping. And the camera tend to break down. Therefore I now had to buy a new one.

Even though, this is not about the price or that the pictures sometimes turn out to be over/under-exposed. It’s about the feel of having to think through every frame you shoot. Now you can not just delete a bad photo. Or, wait. You can throw it out, but then it going to hurt the wallet.

In February and March I spent four weeks in Burma (formally known as Myanmar) to document the life of former political prisoners before the historic election today at April 1.

This was my first big photo essay as and there was of course a lot of challenges to overcome. It is very difficult to obtayn a journalism visa to Burma and therefor I had to travel there as a “tourist”. In Burma there has been a very strict military dictatorship since 1962. It is the second most corrupt country in the world. Journalists has been imprisoned there for working as a journalist.

During the last couple of months there has been a lot of positive changes in the country. It has been easier to get access and they have released all of the 651 political prisoners they had in prison. I followed some of the monks in Maggin monastery in Yangon. They where some of the leaders of the big uprisings in 1988 and 2007. All of them was put in prison and released on January 13 this year.

During my stay I got a small sense of how it is to be watched by the secret police there. On my second day I was in a small city doing a interview and on our way back my translator and the person I was interviewing was stopped by the police and taken to the police station. They where question about who I was and why I was here. At the same time this was going on I was standing outside when some of the locals there put me on a bisycle and sent me to the taxi-station to get away. My translater managed to talk ourself out of the situation.

The second encounter was at a monastery where the people I was meeting thought we where being watched at a cafe the day before. And it turned out we where. The next day at 7 AM I meet at the monastery and they had gotten a tips by a monk in the city. He had heard that someone in the police knew I was there and where on their way to find me and that I had to get away. So I hurried up and took a taxi away from the monastery.

Back home I only hope that Burma can get the democracy the people have fought for so long. The true test will be at the primary election in 2015 when Aung San Suu Kyi probably will win if the election is free and fair.

You can read the story in VG here.

Some photos I have taken for Atlantis Medisinske Høgskole in Oslo. They needed pictures of the entire staff as well as some illustration photos for their website.

Some snapshots from Kolkata in India. I spent a short week there preparing for a four-week story in another country in Asia, where I will be staying when this post will go out. The country I’m traveling to is stricktly controlled by the military and I’m traveling there on a tourist-visa. Journalists are not allowed. Exiting.

This Christmas I spent a good week in NY with good friends. Here are some photos:

This year I wanted to make Christmas gifts with a vintage look to some of my friends and family. I went around to flea markets and stores to find nice frames that I could use.
- Then I printed out the photos and cut them into the right size.
- I put the pictures in a ovenware and poured tea over it. If I wanted more of a brownish look, I sprinkled some instant coffee over the pictures.
- I used a sand paper to make scratches.
- Then I poured out some of the tea and put the ovenware with the photos in a preheated oven until it was dry.
- After approximately five minutes the photos was dry and ready to be put into the frames.

In some of the photos I had to give it a couple of tries to get the right look. It was actually quite fun to do and I hope the recipients are happy with the gifts.