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• Eksempler på bilder stilt ut på Galleri Henrik Gerner i desember 2007

Dear visitor,

Welcome to schilvold.com. The following will give you an idea of who I am and what I do. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments.

Book projects

Presently, most of the work I do is related to book projects. Some of these are my own, others are those of various clients (for competitive reasons, I cannot publish any details). For these projects I take and edit photographs, write texts and design layouts. In some cases, I also have the role of an advisor or an editor.

Events and reportages

I do from time to time accept other kinds of assignments, however. I can photograph and document events such as wedding ceremonies, celebrations and anniversaries, and I can make travel reportages based on destinations such as Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, which are countries I have been to before and know fairly well.

Lectures

Another possibility is lectures on themes like digital photography, book publishing and the great outdoors. The latter has been one of my interests for more than a decade, and I have visited many beautiful and exciting locations in Norway and abroad, including Norwegian national parks like Femundsmarka, Jotunheimen and Børgefjell, the Rockies in British Columbia, the rain forest in Queensland, Australia, and remote costal areas in New Zealand.

Ireland

Since 2000, I have taken a special interest in the history and the culture of Ireland, thus, I have accumulated a fair amount of knowledge about that small, but captivating country (a friend once labeled me “a walking encyclopedia”), and I suppose I could go so far as saying that my identity has been split in two – emotionally, I am probably about 51 percent Norwegian and 49 percent Irish …

This may be difficult to understand unless you know something about the “soul” of Ireland, and have been touched by it personally. Ireland was “the island of saints and scholars”, it was one of the last bastions of Gaelic (“Celtic”) culture, and even though the last decades of modernization have changed the face of the island a lot, there are still many friendly and magical places left, places that to me exert an almost spiritual kind of significance.

Contrasts

With regards to work experience, I was a freelancer for the local newspaper Moss Dagblad for roughly four years, from 2004 to 2008. This was a challenging, but also rewarding experience – there was always a deadline which had to be met, everything had to happen very rapidly, and not a single day was like the previous one.

In some ways, the work I did for Moss Dagblad was the exact opposite of what I do now – back then, I mainly shot pictures with the camera handheld. Today, I almost always use a tripod. The same goes for the writing. When at the newspaper, the keyboard took a pretty good beating every time I sat down at my desk, since the articles often had be hammered out as quickly as possible. Now, I mainly work with “slow” texts that require days or even weeks before they can be said to be finished.

I suppose it is a bit like making an oil paining – you paint and repaint, and the artwork never gets completely finished. But at some point, you just have to decide that it is good enough and let go of it.

Photography workshops

Last year, in april 2008, I conducted my first workshop in digital photography – a course of 18–20 hours spread over three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The main goals for the course were to give the participants a better understanding of digital technology and the use of digital SLR-cameras, and to provide an overview of the sort of workflow which I feel is essential if one wants to capture high-quality images, edit them in a safe, flexible and non-destructive manner, and finally make prints of those images which do justice to what one sees on-screen. So, in short, it was a “camera to print”-course. Some parts of the course took place “in the field”, other parts were conducted in my studio, with the aid of computers and a projector.

Fortunately, the course was a success, and since april last year, I have organized and led more than ten such courses (more to come later this year), usually with groups of about five people. The small numbers ensure that everyone gets the help and attention they need. It also creates a calm and relaxed atmosphere (although the course itself it quite intense).

The time in Australia

The single most important educational and inspirational period in my life was without doubt the time I spent in Sydney, Australia, in 2002 and 2003. I was very young then, and the experience was just mind blowing. The lectures and workshops at the university (I was enrolled as a student at the University of New South Wales) were interesting, but mentally, the most essential part of the stay was probably the thrill and the challenge of living in a different country, located about as far from my home land Norway as you can get without boarding a ship to Antarctica.

There remains a strong love for Australia in my heart today. Perhaps I ought to say that I am 40 percent Norwegian, 39 percent irish and 21 percent Aussie …

Where I live

The places where I live and have my atelier is located in the small town of Moss, on the eastern side of the Oslofjord. The suburbs around Moss partly spill over on the island Jeløy, which is connected to the mainland by a small road bridge (“øy” is the Norwegian equivalent to “island”, like “ey” in Icelandic and “ay” in many Scottish place names).

Jeløy is, in spite of some less-than-beautiful urban sprawl on the southeastern part of the island, mainly a lovely piece of land which truly deserves its nickname “the jewel of the Oslofjord”. It is only a mile long, but very varied. In the south is a large protected area with kilometers of completely unspoiled coastline, old forests made up of deciduous trees such as maple, lime and ash, tree-lined avenues and alleyways, rich fields and elegant historical mansions from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Some have compared this part of Jeløy to places in Denmark or England, and it is undoubtedly quite unlike much of the rest of Norway. The climate is generally mild, even in winter, the many beautiful large trees make you think of romantic old English parks, and the mansions dotting the gentle landscape were all inspired by foreign rather than Norwegian fashions.

Guided tours

If you visit Oslo in spring (April – June) or fall (September – November), and you have a couple of days to spare, I would strongly recommend a visit to this part of Jeløy, perhaps in combination with a guided tour (walking or angling) or a photography course (which are among the services that I offer). It is only 40 minutes by train from Oslo (provided that you catch the Intercity service to Halden or Gothenburg).

The northern part of Jeløy is more hilly, the large forests there are dominated by spruce, pine, birch and rowan, and the farms have, roughly speaking, always been in the care of ordinary farmers – thus, they were never converted into mansions like their counterparts in the south. For those reasons, the northern part of Jeløy” is far more reminiscent of Norway as most people think of it than the “søndre Jeløy” is. Still, the great views, the peaceful walking trails and the many rare plants should make a daytrip to “nordre Jeløy” worthwhile for anyone with a love for nature.

The first book

In 2006, I published a book about this island, which is also the place where I spent much of my childhood, and the making of that book, a colossus of 340 pages and almost 200 color photographs named Forever Jeløy. A tribute to the gem of the Oslofjord, was in many ways the start of my life as a self-employed writer and photographer.

The second book

Since then, I have published another book, On the mystical road of longing, which is also related to Jeløy, but in a far more subtle way than the previous one, since this new book is mainly comprised of poems, a short novel and photographs of the more “artistic” kind (tending more towards the “peculiar” and the abstract than those in “Forever Jeløy”).

Being self-employed

In case you are wondering, I was born in 1979, but most people say I look younger and act “older” than one would expect. Sounds like a good combination to me. But is it true? Heaven knows, I just try to lead a good life and do the best I can. Life as a self-employed is not always easy. You have to make some sacrifices, and be prepared to work a lot and think “outside the box”. Every day.

But, it can be very gratifying as well. So I hang on. Through the weeks of dreary weather or the lonely nights in front of the PC, I hang on. And then, suddenly, something happens which makes you forget all the unpaid bills and the long waits. Like the arrival of that extraordinarily light which all landscape photographers dream of, or the appearance of a letter from an inspired reader in the mailbox.

The importance of goals

I believe that everyone should find some goal to strive for. A goal which allows them to focus their energy on something which is creative rather than destructive, a goal which can help them become the best that they can be. To photographers, that may be anything from a future exhibition to a change in worldview. To writers, it may be the completion of a poem or a dream of wider recognition in the world of literature.

I think I have found my goal. At least for now. Perhaps I can help others find theirs. To influence other people, to touch them in some way, is, I think, the ultimate purpose of all art. Without an audience, art is meaningless except as a means for the artist to explore his or her own self.

One may not reach the goal of creating that vibrant “something” all the time, but one can try, and, in a sense, that process of trying, of reaching for something distant, can be a goal in itself.

Like Oscar Wilde famously stated: “We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are reaching for the stars.” Attitude is sometimes everything.

Stay tuned!

Edmund Schilvold
Jeløy, April 2008

Genealogy/family history

If you are interested in genealogy, and/or in the origin of the name Schilvold, click here.