Small recap.

Well. I'm keeping busy. That's for sure.
I'm now in the middle of finalizing my final degree show. Which will mark the end of my time as a photography student and the beginning of my career as a hopefully successful professional photographer!

The image above is from my final series. Which I shot on a mountain in Norway this winter. I'll try to make a bigger post about it whenever I actually finish the damn thing.

Magnum is good. I'm still working with Paul in production. And I'm really starting to enjoy myself, as I get more and more "heavy duty" assignments. Which in a sense makes me feel like a more valuable part of the whole Magnum machinery. You could actually say that I'm contributing!

In addition to the production stuff, which basically consists of scanning, archiving new scans, retouch (you know, the dust and scratches thing.) and the occasional print production, I'm also working with the cultural department, producing/designing brochures and catalogues for exhibitions and print sales.

Doing real graphical design work that is actually supposed to go out to clients (wealthy clients, may I add) is a bit daunting at first. Especially since I don't have any formal training in design. But I kinda figured I just had to roll with the punches, suck it up and trust my gut feelings about how I wanted to go about solving the tasks they gave me.

So far, I haven't had any complaints.

I guess that's gotta count for something. Right?

Anyway. My original six-week term as an intern is quickly coming to an end. I think next week is supposedly my last. However, I plan to stick around for as long as I can. In other words, I'll be there until they chuck me out on the street. Don't worry though, I'll have a chat with them tomorrow, and try and figure out how they feel about the whole thing. Maybe, if I'm lucky, they actually want me to stick around for a while longer. And I won't have to sneak inside every morning!

Hope you're all well!

Day ...erm, I lost count.

Well, yeah. What'd you expect. I forget shit. Remember that!

Anyway. I still work at Magnum, I more or less go there every day, I do however forget to update the blog. Or let me rephrase that. I don't think you're all interested in reading about my dusting endeavours again and again...

Yes. I'm still dusting negs. I finished the Ian Berry ones a few days ago. But as you know, Magnum is all about photographs. (duh.) Thing is, though. Most of these photographs are old, shot on film and scanned. Guess what. There were a lot more photographs for me to clean!

I'm currently going through Nikos Economopoulos' portfolio. He's a pretty cool photographer, so run along kids, check him out. Oh, and while you're at it, check out Paolo Pellegrin. He is growing on me more and more every time I view a new piece of work by him. I can't really explain why, all I know is that I like it!

On a totally different note. I've applied for a few jobs. One, photojournalist for the Norwegian armed forces. Second, assistant for one of Norway's most distinguished photographers. I've heard back from both of them and I'm basically just crossing my fingers, hoping to get called in for an interview! Hopefully I'll pull it off. So cross your fingers for me, pretty please!

That is all for now. So run along kids, go look at photographs. Get inspired!

Day 8.

More digital cleaning/dusting/refurbishing of negatives today. Not too much exciting going on really. I did get to have a stab at scanning with the Imacon scanner today though! That thing is absolutely insane. 300MB 9000px wide files from a 35mm neg. Now THAT is impressive.

Day 5,6 and 7.

This has pretty much been my view the last three days.

Well. That and the Metro in the morning on my way to the office and the Evening Standard on my way back home in the evening.

I've spent most of my time this week doing restoration work on a set of images from Congo, shot by Ian Berry in 1960. Restoration work basically means going through each scan, which is approximately 300MB in size on a minimum of 66,7% zoom, removing every speck of dust from the scanner, scratch in the negative and other nasties that have found their way on to the scan.

Sounds like pretty easy work, no? Well, it is. In theory. Until you get an image like this one for example which had a huge fucking line/scratch running straight through each face in the god damn picture. And then you multiply that by 107. And there you go. Not so easy any more, is it?

I don't think I've ever been so fidgety and restless in my entire life as I've been these past three days. Getting to envelope, label and send a few hundred press releases for the new "Early Magnum" exhibition was a in fact a welcome relief after a few hours with those negs!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining or anything. I'm enjoying my self very much at the office and I honestly believe I am very lucky to be in the position I'm in. And I wouldn't trade it for the world! But seriously, if I see another speck of dust or a small scratch this weekend I'm pretty sure I'll have some sort of seizure.

However. So far I'm at 30-something files, which means that on Monday it's back to the office for more dusty negs!

Day 4

I tore up a Josef Koudelka exhibition today!

It kinda broke my heart to be honest. I was told to rip up and destroy a whole set of prints from a previous exhibit. Kinda felt like all I wanted to do was to save them, take them home with me and hang them on a wall where they rightfully belong. But ah well, I reckon I'm better off doing as I'm told.

Other than that, the day has mostly consisted of cataloguing, digging through the archives and trimming the new prints for Chris Steele-Perkins' new exhibition.

Bringing my work from last summer in on Wednesday. Brendan, who is in charge of the Editorial department wanted to see some of my work. Which is pretty awesome! Although I'm kinda freaking out at the same time. But he's a nice guy, so it's all good!

Have a great weekend/Easter! I'm going to spend most of it in the darkroom or behind the screen working on my degree show!

Day 2-3

I have got to be the worst blogger in the history of mankind.

Ah well. Shit happens I guess.

Anyway. I've spent a few more days at the Magnum office now. I'm still getting used to the whole idea of actually working there, so I cant really say I feel totally house warm yet. But the people I work with are very nice and welcoming. So a few more days and I think I'll be all right!

Most of my time have been spent searching through the archives, putting together lightboxes and series of images for different clients. And I've helped with taking down the "Political Landscapes" exhibit, plus preparing the exhibition space for the new exhibit "Vintage Magnum" which is going to be a kick ass show!

Getting up before 7am sucks major balls by the way. I'm not ever going to get used to that. Ever!

Day 1

So. How was it?

Day one started out pretty calm. I mostly spent the day doing smaller odd jobs here and there, which was nice. It's very nice to be able to ease in to things and just get house warm!

One of the bigger tasks was to sort through and catalogue pictures from the archives which are going out to a big customer. This means looking through a pile of prints and finding the images in the Magnum archive. It might sound like quite the boring job. But when you are working with prints from photographers like Philip Jones Griffiths, Eve Arnold, Herbert List, Trent Parke and Werner Bischof it is everything but boring!