I work with photography in long-term projects concentrated on subjects that deals with semiotic and set design issues. How meaning and comprehension is established and constructed visually. How we experience, and in various ways are affected by, the surrounding environment or context. How expectations are created. I’m fascinated by the ambiguous space between what we perceive and how we interpret it — what we understand.

These past years my photographic work has centred around shows and performances and their context. The audience, the expectations and the architecture. As spectators we participate in and influence an experience. Where do our projections begin and where does the performance take over? Under which conditions do we share an experience?

In the Portraits series (2003—2004) the enchanted spectators are portrayed — the audience that watch and experience with great emotional involvement.

The Settings series (2005—) portrays the foyer — the space we visit before and after a performance, the room for waiting expectantly, and where first judgements are later passed. Were the expectations fulfilled, or not? The interiors are carefully planned, and the suggestive architectural elements effectively reinforce our expectations. The softed lighting, the rising stairs, the lush red carpet, the cloakroom pitstop ... all parts of the set design of expectation.

The new project Mingle (2006—) focuses on mingling spectators — subjected to being watched, and/or subjecting others to being watched. A social game with many unwritten rules. Mingling while the night is young — a preparation for something to come — a stage where anything seems possible, and the night appears promising and unlimited.

Telling Stories (2006—) is another recently initiated project, exploring how the surrounding environment influences and reinforces a story or a situation. The starting-point and inspiration is environmental descriptions from fairy tales and literature, where the extremes are evident: the dark menacing forest as opposed to the sunlit idyllic glade. How do one reinforce a story, and steer the reader’s interpretation in the desired direction? How do you convince someone? I want to emphasize the various factors that influence our comprehension of, and our emotions in regard to, any given situation, and use this as a base for creating scenes or set-pieces.

In all of these works I exclude the main characters and events, and focus only on the surroundings or details in the surroundings; the setting of the scene, the carefully constructed framework for the story or the show.