Erik Almas Photography

I often get asked what inspires me.

It all do I answer…

It’s not one thing but many things brought into consciousness that shape the excitement of creating pictures.

 

 

A couple of months back I, through friends, got invited to a castle outside Tuscany. I don’t think any photographer could step into this place and not be excited to take pictures! It was visually stunning and truly inspiring.

As I stand in a place like this and take in the atmosphere I always ask myself about the stories this place have shaped.

Who has been standing at this very spot prior to myself? What did they do and what were they like?

Who would they remind me of? A character from a movie or someone I know?

Would they be a part of a recurring dream or some desire of my own? What in myself would I see in them?

 

From this mindset visuals start flowing and stories take shape. I then relate these stories back to myself and ask if I can bring my current life into it.

Something current that my heart is engaged in that will compel me to craft new images that has emotional meaning to me.

It then becomes a mishmash of ideas that somehow urge me to manifest them through pictures…

 

I like how these images stand on their own as both a travel journal and simple emotional context the spaces carry.

The true gift of the time spent there though was what I took home. Both the place and the experience there subtly instigated a change in how I approach my work.

 

So I can honestly say; I’m inspired!

Inspired by a lot of small things prompted by the experience at an amazing place in the Tuscan countryside.

So what inspires me?

It all does…

What’s needed though to bring it “all” together is a compelling enough instigator which creates a reason to capture or express, and this place in Tuscany was that for me…

 

Advertising Agency Wrayward came to me with a set of layouts for their client Velux that had an idea as simple as it was beautiful.
With skylights one opens the house to elements of the sky and in many ways brings this into ones home.
Symbolizing the elements in these ads were two kids. One storming through a kitchen with her balloons in the shape of clouds and in another a boy with his kite taking the wind with him inside…

Prior to most assignments I sit down and write a few words about approach and idea. These treatments are for the clients to see how I plan on executing the assignment but also for me to pre visualize the images and their story. I think about the content and how I personally connect to it. What my view point is and how I relate to the idea. How I think about it….
In this the images start to take shape in my mind, I see the different elements and how they come together into one single frame.
I then start thinking about the less tangible parts . The ideas, stories and expressions. This is the truly time-consuming part of a treatment but also the one that to me is the most important:
How to add the emotional elements that makes the image more than a two dimensional surface. The context that exudes this emotion and makes the viewer connect to that singular frame.

The ideas for these shots for Velux were so developed from the agency side I truly got to extend myself further and think about the kids and their metaphor of being of the elements of clouds and wind.

From my treatment:

“In crafting these photographs I want to make strong, beautiful and iconic pictures which at the same time has a whimsical but honest sense to them. Whimsical in idea and character, honest in space and how our talent portrays themselves. Pictures that are cinematic in the light quality and real in the emotional content. Real enough for the viewer to be able to relate to a playful kid and connect to the story…

Who are these kids? What do they think and dream of and how do they embody their outside element?

The questions are fascinatingly open ended…
I see the kids as dreamers. Harnessing a bit of the outside as in capturing a dream. It is with them inside. Through the skylights the world is wide open and the kids have a limitless attitude. In this moment of carrying the world and it’s gentle elements there’s a fearless sense of pursuing ones dreams.

There’s a sense of excitement and curiosity and just being a kid. Both of them inside doing out door stuff, carrying themselves with a feel and sensation of getting away with it.

The girl with the balloons is as ethereal as clouds. Just as the changing weather she has this intangible quality…
A smart, beautiful girl with a bit of tomboy attitude.

The boy, a care free windsurfer with a mischievous smile of certainty. Certain that whatever he does, its the right thing to do…”

I’m not sure if I managed to capture my intentions of who these kids were.
In some ways it’s not so much the point either.
It’s more about having that something to strive and reach for in my quest to create better and better pictures…

Big thanks to Scott and David and everyone else at Wrayward for fantastic creative and trusting me with their ideas.

I’m in great gratitude.

And please check out the Behind the Scenes Video of how it all came together…

 

I grew up in Trondheim, Norway.

19 years ago I left for the US to study photography and eventually ended up staying here creating a life and career.

 

My heart is still in Trondheim and when I got introduced to the local advertising agency HK with the possibility of working with them on some great creative I got really excited.

The brief was to create a winter wonderland out of the town square and the shopping center sitting at the end of it…

At the time I was in Namibia so with desert sand between my toes I started thinking about turning the square in my hometown into a fashion winter fairytale.

The challenge; It was fall and another month or so till snow would start falling.….

I do love this kind of challenge. It get’s my mind going on how to craft a beautiful visual without having the right elements to work with.

How do we make winter before there’s snow?

How do we turn buildings into Ice?

There’s a lot going on in this process and in it all I’m both a photographer and director. I take pictures and but also work with and direct icemakers, CGI artists and retouchers to all come together to craft one single photographic moment…

 

Check out the behind the scenes on how it all came together.

 

 

 

Big thanks to the AD agency HK, Thomas Juul, Art Direction, Chris Bodie on retouch, Hacjob on CGI, Leila Hafzi for supplying the dress and Another Production in London for putting it together in a really short period of time.

 

2 weeks ago we did an editorial for Soma Magazine as a part of an ongoing feature they call “I dress like”.
Happy to share one of the images that didn’t make the cut…