My first book - an autobiography

I cannot help but share this amazing news! I have recently been given a grant from The Norwegian Non-ficiton Writers and Translator Organization (Norsk faglitterær forfatter og oversetter forening - NFFO) to write an autobiography about my family's escape from the war in Kuwait to my father's island home in Hitra, Norway.

Masalama is a story about coming to terms with the past and family secrets. It’s about identity, and how the Gulf War 1990 changed my family's lives. I started writing it when I was 13 years old, and it will portray a young adult's journey, through a family crisis and trauma. 

This coming of age story will take you around the world, through the slums of Manila, the Australian beaches, China's Yangshuo river and home again. Ma’salama, means farewell or peace be with you in Arabic. The book will be written in Norwegian at first, but I hope to get it published internationally. 

I've never really written a book before. I have authored a few articles when I worked as a journalist, as well as written for a digital academic site for high school studies in photography, but this is going to be a completely different ball game. I'm looking for publishers at the moment, and non-fiction writing workshops.

I've always had a secret dream to be a full-time author, and who knows, this might be the first step towards realizing that goal? I already have book number two planned which I hope to get on the screen eventually: My father's personal escape from the war in Kuwait, his escape from prison and experience of doing business in the Middle East. 

What are your dreams? How do you plan to make them come true? Do you have a personal story you'd like to share? 

The great shift from stills to multimedia

I was at a lecture in Oslo once where Brian Storm, (founder of Mediastorm, a company that specializes in digital storytelling) came to talk about how still photographers had moved from telling their stories in a single shot or series of shots, to creating digital stories for the web by using a mix of sound, stills and film. The photo reportage that you once found in magazines such as LIFE once upon a time, had now adapted to using a mix of both sound and video. Now this was about ten years ago. Since then, the style of storytelling has changed drastically.

I love how one picture can tell a whole story, but for the web, there are so many fleeting pictures everywhere that to capture the attention of the viewers and draw them into your story you need more movement. Although, the technique or medium you should use will always be decided by how the story is best conveyed, however nowadays from what I understand, when it comes to the web, it's all about video. In fact 90% video.

Mediastorm has changed a lot since that lecture, and now pretty much everything they shoot seems to be compelling videos with not much use of stills at all. You can still use stills, but not like they did 10 years ago. As a photographer, I'm thinking that to be able to tell my stories digitally, I need to go back to video. Have you taken the transition from stills to video? 

Visual storytelling workshop with Bob Sacha: part 1

I'm supposedly a photographer, but at heart I have always felt that more than anything, I'm a storyteller. I'm an emotional and spiritual person, easily touched and I love stories; I love listening to them and I love telling them. Photography is the medium that I've used the most, but I have had experience with both video and radio though it's been ages since I used it at all. Now the technical stuff you can always pick up again, and do tutorials through sites like lynda.com - but the art of storytelling, is harder to learn on your own, which is why I really wanted to do Bob Sacha's workshop at Nordphotography this summer.

It's only been a day after the workshop finished, and I have to say, that I'm feeling so inspired! And before I forget everything that I've learnt I think it might be a good idea to summarize it here. This workshop was about making compelling multimedia pieces for the web. And here's the first report of what I learnt from my five days of soaking it up with the very amicable multimedia maven Bob Sacha. 
 

What is forgiveness? How do you move on? This is the story that I made at the workshop with Bob Sacha. 

What?

Visual story telling is a new language that has a more literary style, but no narrator. When we hear the subject talking, we see them in action, rather than see their "talking heads" on the screen. (If and when we do see the main character speak - it's a powerful sentence!). It's a literary story with no narrator. There is no middleman; the interviewer is never heard, because this breaks the magic of direct connection. This style of visual story telling is essentially character-driven, they are who you invest in and connect with, and they are who the audience engages with. 

How?

Technically, the story is told through a person, a main character, often a woman or a girl, and gives people something to care about. It usually has one strong character that represents everybody. The main character should be a good talker (a detailed storyteller), someone who speaks well. What's great about visual storytelling through video, is that you give your character a voice, rather than just taking their photo.  

Our "office" at Saga. Editing time. 

The person is the story

A place or an event is not a story, but rather a person connected to that place or event, and the personal story they carry inside them. To find out what the essence of the story is you have to ask yourself: what is the universal connection? Why should people care about this story? What is it that connects your viewers to the character, and the greater story? Identity and loss for instance are stories about a bigger concept that connects viewers to a story. You need to convey emotion to tell a great video story. 

It's all about feelings...

In non-narrated storytelling, it is essential to ask open questions, such as: "tell me a story about what happened? tell me what you were thinking then? What did you learn?". You can also ask about specific things such as the weather, clothes, memories/senses like "what did it smell like? You have to ask about feelings, because visual storytelling needs emotion to connect the viewer. Good video has to have lots of emotion and feelings! To capture this, you have to have a conversation with them, not an interview. Ask your character to take you on that journey, the day "it" happened. Then film what they do. And remember, show - don't tell! 

Bob Sacha is not just a vivid storyteller himself, but also a great listener. And I've learnt that it's crucial to have good listening skills when talking to your subjects/characters, and picking up on the things that they don't say, but that would be great for your story.  

A selfie of me trying to make a time lapse of the sky for the first time. After trying three times, I finally managed to make one, of the tide filling up a small "lake" in the sea. It's at the end of my video. 

My idea

After discussing ideas, my story boiled down to the universal concept of forgiveness. I could have explored so many angles, and interviewed people, and made something more character driven, but because it was a personal story I decided to do something more abstract, which in many ways made it harder. You can see the result above. That's it for now, but If you have any examples of great visual storytelling I'd love to see them! 

In loving memory of Solveig, my Grandmother

My Norwegian Grandmother died last year, and although I didn't spend as much time with her as I should have in her last years, she was a very important part of my life and I felt very close to her. I used to live with her as a teenager and for brief periods as an adult as well. When she started to become frail I was there for her, and listened to her the way she used to listen to me. I recorded her stories before the dementia took completely hold of what was left of her memory.

The view from my Grandmother's bed, pictures of her family on the wall.

The final days of her life, and her death touched me deeply, and triggered a trauma and a depression in me that was indeed long-coming for many other reasons, and unfortunately still has not quite let go of me. I was perhaps not the strongest, but arguably the one with the least fear to face the pain. From a Filipino perspective, as the oldest, I felt compelled to be there, when for different reasons several of her own children could not. So a few of my siblings, a cousin and I spent day and night by her side, trying to feed her and soak her lips and tongue with a sponge of water to stop her from dehydration. Every time she reached out her arms in the air as if she was trying to embrace us, we took her hands and held them to let her know that we were there, even if she did not know who we were anymore, she would know that we were close - we were family.

Immediately, the sadness was so overwhelming that I felt as though the only way I could put distance between the grief of her slow, painful departing and myself was through my lens. Perhaps that is why my father (her son) gave me permission to photograph before I could even ask: "take some pictures", he said. I believe that in some strange way documenting her last days, was therapeutic for him as much as it was for me. And so I photographed her - at her deathbed with her family.  I do understand that some may find this rather morbid and even repulsive, and that the death of a loved one is a very private matter to many people. Let us not forget though, that once upon a time, before death became institutionalised, it was a very natural part of everyday life, just as much as giving birth. Today, death is shut behind closed doors, it is confrontational and sometimes controversial. Yet, when a loved one dies, it may put your whole life into perspective and give it a different meaning, simply, because it brings you closer to your own mortality.

My father and my Grandmother at her deathbed.

For our family, there were many mixed feelings about how my Grandmother more or less starved to death at the very end, and unfortunately it drove a wedge particularly between her sons that were left behind. She simply lost her appetite and will to live and her body could no longer make use of the nutrients she was given. Her kidneys began to fail, her body was bloated and puffy and she was too weak to speak. Sometimes she muttered help, but what did that mean? Help me die or help me live? It was excruciating to hear... Medically, there was every reason to believe that her time had come, and the only thing that could be done was to relieve the pain with morphine and stop giving her water because this only prolonged the process. Euthanasia is illegal in Norway, but some might question, like my family did, how is this different?

In Norway, the choice to let life end its course naturally when in the health care of the government may seem controversial to those who feel as though life should be held sacred to the very last minute - letting them die seems all too easy. Yet, this all depends on how one defines the value of life when old and frail, and last, but not least if you are ready to let go. Sometimes it is hard to accept that the end has come; that it is time to say goodbye and that your loved one no longer wishes to be there. Many find themselves in conflict not just with the health care system for the elderly, but with their own guilt for not having been there enough before it was too late, and last but not least with mortality itself.

One of my four year old daughters, crying at her Great Grandmother's funeral.

For me, the process of shooting these photographs were therapeutical, as well as the images themselves. Although they bring back a sadness in me, they also help me feel that sadness and with time I feel it less and less. I believe that photography, when used in the right way, can heal and be cathartic. My Grandmother's passing forced me to confront my own struggles, and I am now slowly finding my own way back to recovery, and resetting my own path. Her death has brought more meaning to my life, though I am not quite sure where it is headed, and how much of it is within my control. The images however deserve respect - and therein lies a responsibility to show and tell the story in an honorable way. Until I can decide how to do this decently, the main series of images remain on my harddisk. I have tried to choose the few that were the least revealing and confronting here.

This untold story of my Grandmother's death raises many issues such as euthanasia, how death is treated in different societies, how we treat the elderly, the significant job that the health personell do in such a process that is hardly ever acknowledged - and simply understanding the process of dying as it is no longer a part of our everyday here. There are so many angles, particularly the personal one. Death as a new beginning. How would you approach this story? How do you feel about art as therapy? How do you feel about photographing the departed? 

Brooke Shaden

...is an amazing photographer that I came across while looking through videos on creativelive.com; a site with tons of workshops that you can join online for free when they're sent live, or pay to watch at a later point. 

I missed Brooke Shaden's workshop, but I watched her video on inspiration which was for free and I've been hooked on her ever since. 

I am still trying to work out what my style is, as it has changed over the years. I know that I am a storyteller at heart, but the thought of putting together an underwater shoot in the spirit of Brooke Shaden is something that I would really like to try. Have you ever tried anything like it? Have a look at the video below and tell me what you think! 

This video goes through my personal process of shooting underwater and the top tips I've come up with for shooting without those painful mistakes. Some of these tips won't apply to everyone. For example, any backdrop can be used and made to look beautiful, and lighting is always an option underwater, so take these tips as they are given - with only personal experience to back them up.

Happy Days

Back in the day my work was syndicated in Marie Claire after a break that I got when working in China as a climbing guide by day, photojournalist by night. This is a fun presentation of me as a former contributor of Marie Claire

Exhibition for my students

We recently had an exhibition for our students at the school that I teach at, which turned out to be quite a success, until the images all started falling down...! At least they served their purpose for that particular day when the Department of Education came to visit. However we have to get them up again soon, with a system that works far better than the one we have now. (Gaffa tape!) 

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Nordic Light Marathon

Had an amazing time at the Nordic Light Workshop Marathon where I got to work with the likes of Hollywood photographer Greg Gorman, Magnar Fjørtoft, Roger Strandli Brendhagen, Knut Koivisto and so many more...

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