A much larger studio than I ever imagined

Transcript below.

Listen; It’s important that you buy into the premise of what I’m doing here. I’m studying for a master’s degree in photography and if all goes well I’ll graduate in December. Up until then, I’m aiming to make videos showing and reflecting upon my work. As a way of documenting my own process. But also with the hopes of gaining some critical friends.

Now - the topic for today. If you’ve seen my videos from before, you know that I’ve been working from a small office/studio space in my home. Since about half a year, my creative work takes place in the attic space of a 1930s school building. This is the story of how I made that into a functional and aesthetically pleasing studio environment.

When I got access and signed the lease back in November I had been actively looking for a space only for a short while. An inquiry in one of the community Facebook groups led me to this old school building where the local chess club had just moved out of the second floor. I was only aiming for something around maybe 20 square meters. But found this place holding two rooms where I can have my studio, a framing workshop, and a place for reading, writing, and editing.

The flooring in the smaller room was half-finished after some sort of incident. There were clunky fluorescent light fixtures in the main room. The wall paint was worn down and of a weird blue color.

But I loved how the light came in through the bay windows. How it opened possibilities that I hadn’t even dreamt of. How it’s only a five-minute bike ride from my home. How renting this space contributes to maintaining the old school building. How it’s marginally more expensive than only a desk space (maybe with shared studio access) in the city.

After painting the walls, fixing the floors, and switching the fluorescent ceiling lights for LED track lights - I slowly furnished the place using secondhand and recycled stuff as far as possible.

I paid about 80 euros for the main desk. The couch, secondary desk, and carpets were all found as free pick-ups in local Facebook groups.

Much of the photo equipment is stuff that I’ve been collecting over maybe 10-15 years. I can’t understand how I managed to store all that in my house. Background holders, a bunch of tripods, and clamps were given to me by an old colleague from when I used to work in a camera store when I was 19.

Almost right away I custom-built a tool- and workbench as the first item in my framing workshop. As a whole I have several areas for work; Standing up, sitting down, dirty, dusty, clean, reading, writing, shooting, editing, framing, and mounting.

I’ve aimed for both form and function. I wanna have a place that’s comfortable and aesthetically pleasing as well as functional and inviting for work. The big win (compared to my home studio) is not having to stow everything away all the time.

One thing I’m particularly pleased with is adding a french cleat system to the main wall in the studio area. That gives me the flexibility to use the wall space for hanging photos, putting up shelves, or moving about large note boards holding mind maps and project management.

I’ve added a few items bought new - a water boiler, a pour-over coffee maker, and a refrigerator. I’m still on the lookout for some more storage for materials and prints. I’m trawling Facebook marketplace and other sites for used stuff. But all in all - I really love this place.

Okay…! So this YouTube channel of mine has moved from tutorials on electronic music to focusing on my own photographic, artistic process. For the last few years I’ve been occupied with my studies - video output has been slow. To say the least.

I’ve missed the dialogue. I’ve missed the opportunity of meeting critical friends.

As I move into the final stretch of my master’s degree I’m hoping to up my social media game. I’ll use YouTube together with Instagram and my personal website to talk and write about my final major project. I’m aiming to document and tell the story of that process; Assignments, Reading, Writing, Tutoring, Photography, Curation, Exhibition…

If you’re at all interested in the intersection of photography, art, and research - I’m guessing I’ll see you soon again. Hej då kompis!