Detroit - A partial ghost town. I am inspired by this city, which has a high crime rate as well as produces great poverty. At the same time, however, a place where the contradiction between the beauty of decay and the emancipatory aspect of the lack of alternatives becomes evident. No matter how precariously the situation of the people living here is, they are still alive and strong. To survive this city requires endurance and strength. The people here create niches in the harsh reality. It is a great city that suffers and yet has preserved its soul.

In this project, postcards will be used to narrate Tarlabaşı, a fast-changing neighborhood in the heart of Istanbul. This project aims to challenge two popular images of Tarlabaşı that have been created in recent years. Till now, the media has broadcast a stereotypical picture made of run down buildings, marginalized people, crime, prostitution.
On the other hand, the real estate investors and the public authorities have begun a glossy advertisement campaign in which Tarlabaşı looks like a fancy European neighbourhood, with a mix of slick residential blocks and shiny offices in the city center.

This postcard is one out of 5 selected that will be spread around town and possibly further. What you see in the picture is an empty space in this neighbourhood – near where I was living and working – where a building was torn down in a matter of days, while I was there. People who'd been living there had to move because investors bought the property, where they plan to build a five-floor luxury building. I decided to use the space of these newly exposed walls and to install a wallpaper image of the kitchiest beach scene I could find, in order to create a space – a symbol of ”paradise” – that people from the neighbourhood could sit in front of. Not showing them what they can't reach, but instead, using this space again. And it worked out: people began talking about this corner, stayed with me while I was installing it and, in the end, came with a chair of their own to sit there.

While I was working in the neighbourhood of Tarlabaşı this series came along. This part of the city is said to be a criminal place - a no-go area. For me, this place was simply very loud, poor, chaotic and full of garbage. I was overwhelmed by this narrow place, too much almost. Then I started to be part of it. I waved over from my balcony to the neighbours in front of me and, after a while, was sitting in their living room and having a tea with them: communicating with gestures, via my camera or the miserable Google translator. I went almost every day to have food at the same place, next to it having a tea and some other days having a Turkish coffee around the corner – Do you take sugar? Yes, one please. It tasted better with sugar and with sweets like baklava beside it. I expanded my own neighbourhood step-by-step and I started to focus on the strong colors everywhere and its body parts that scurried past my eyes. These images mirror the "narrow eyes” I had in this small part of Istanbul. It was hot, dirty and very sweet.

Collection of portrait work

For the Danish motor racing drivers, it has been a long time dream to revive the history of Danish vintage motor racing. In particular beach racing.
In the years 1919-1924 the island of Fanø gave home to some of the most legendary riders and drivers, Europe had to offer. Sadly the races on the beach of Fanø came to an end. Fast forward to modern times, a group of enthusiasts in the hot rod & custom community has finally succeeded in landing the necessary approvals for a race on the Island of Rømø. - September 2016

A country, called Utopia, which exists only in the imagination and in which there is a righteous society in which no one is in need. An ongoing series, maybe a diary.

September 2016

A city in the metropolitan area around Detroit. Hamtramck flourished between 1910 and 1920, when thousands of European immigrants, mainly Polish, were attracted by the growing automobile industry. The motto of the city was "A league of nations" As a result of the decline in the automobile industry around Detroit, the population of Hamtramck declined as in the entire region.

upcoming series

In progress.

A photo series inspired by Leonard Cohen. The confrontation of their experience with death or the question what comes after that. A sarcastic encounter with God and death. The silence thereafter is hard to endure, but it lasts only briefly.