The crisp palette and clean spaces of Swedish photographer Ida Nordung

1. How do you know a photograph is finished, the composition perfected, ready to be published?

It’s is so easy to publish pictures, and get the sense of validation that comes with that. Sometimes I allow the process to go a little too fast. Usually however, I recognize this and withdraw the picture when I realize that there wasn’t an intention behind showing it, I was just seeking affirmation. Tragic but true!

Anyways… it usually depends on a gut feeling. I never know what I want when I take a photograph. Those “perfect compositions” turn up incidentally as I generally avoid perfection these days. Perfection becomes boring quickly. I welcome any element which disturbs the harmony, even if only by a little bit.

2. When did you start taking pictures? What made you pick up the camera?

I started photographing as a sixteen year old. I don’t really remember what made me start, but like a lot of people, I started with nature as my subject. I did so for a couple of years before starting a photography-based education at “folkhögskola”, or folk highschool. On beginning the course I soon found my current style of expression. It became simple, stripped of unnecessary detail. Minimalistic with strong colors.

I love nature, and particularly forests, but they can be disorderly, so it was a relief to find my own aesthetic in orderliness and simplicity.

My elder sister is a talented drawer, and I’ve always been jealous of that. So I guess thanks to digital technology I’ve found my own way to draw. I change quite a lot in my pictures after I’ve taken them, adding and altering colors to suit my mood.

3. What is your favorite color, and why?

I don’t really have a favorite color. I suppose the easiest is to say I like the ones found in nature because they encompasses all colors. I usually dress in dark, mossy tones, yet in my pictures I prefer piercing brights.

In general I wish that we humans could be a bit more colorful. A block of flats with a rainbow of balconies is enough to make me happy. I don’t understand why buildings have to be so gray and boring. People should have more color to look at.

4. Where do you see your favorite skies?

Here in the North of Scandinavia we have a fantastic transition from winter to spring. My favorite sky can be found here during this slow-moving season. It is quite simple—a bright blue sky in contrast with the pure white snow, with the dark silhouettes of towering pine trees.

http://idanordung.wix.com/photos