Vigdis Hjorth

The visual identity of Scandinavian Fiction Podcast featuring Vigdis Hjorth.

The new literature podcast, Scandinavian Fiction, is launching soon and in that connection I've filmed and produced the visual identity of the podcast featuring Vigdis Hjorth in the first of many episodes. The production took place in the beautiful areas around the norwegian capital, Oslo, and in Vigdis’ cozy house.

Vigdis Hjorth is a highly acclaimed writer and especially Will and Testimony (Arv og Miljø), 2016, was a breakthrough in the nordics and was nominated to the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2017. Recently her novel Is Mother Dead – beautifully translated into English by Charlotte Barslund – has just been long-listed for the International Booker Prize.

The project is shot on a series of cameras with Sony A7 II (until the shutter jammed), A7 III and a Canon camcorder. The idea was to shoot everything in a 4:3 format and the style was heavily inspired by creators like Vuhlandes, Frederik Højfeldt Nielsen and Lars Elbæk.

The goal was to creative large simple shots, isolating the subject in front of the great norwegian landscapes. Vigdis Hjort, standing on a frozen lake in her suede jacket is everything that I could have dreamed of.

The podcast is a celebration of Scandinavian literary fiction in translation, coming to all major podcast platforms this April. For our first episode, we’re joined by Vigdis Hjorth, author of dozens of novels, four of which have been translated into English.

In my research I found that every photographer who has ever visited Vigdis has taken her photo in front of the big book shelf in the living room. Or next to the huge window with the natural light making everything look excellent. Of course. So I wanted to do something “different”, but had to shoot some of the book shelf-pictures as well. Had an on camera flash and tried to mix it a bit up. Experimenting between a “hard look” and a “soft look”. Quite the succes I think.

Like everyone else on Youtube I’m quite hooked on the whole vintage thing. 4:3 aspect ratio. Grain. Mist filters and of course yellow text with a red shadow. So there was no doubt in my mind when I smacked this one on top of a shaking camcorder recording out the window of an airplane. The vibes!!!!

Sign up for the newsletter here.