“You have to trust yourself”

Stian Andersen spoke with a-ha.com recently about his work photographing a-ha.

How did you get into photography?

I got started when my dad bought me a Pentax camera. I went to this gig with a Norwegian band called the Dum Dum Boys in the late 80’s, they were the #1 Norwegian rock band at the time, and still are. I wasn’t even old enough to get in legally. I exposed my first roll of B&W film, I gave the pictures to the band afterwards and they were really happy with the result, and it ended up on one of their covers. After that my career was sealed in a way.

What kind of training did you have, what did you do to learn the craft?

I was self taught, I didn’t go to any schools with photographic directions. Just working a lot, always trying out new techniques and stuff like that. All the photo schools here in Norway are crap anyway.

What other photographers do you like?

Internationally, you mean? I have to say Richard Avedon, Ed Templeton and Larry Clark.

There’s a Norwegian photographer, he’s quite obscure: Kaare Kivijärvi RIP. He’s the ultimate photographer from my point of view.

There’s also early Annie Leibovitz’s stuff, those things she did on tour with the Rolling Stones back in 1975. I am not too fond of her recent work though, the posh stuff she does for Vanity Fair, but the earlier Rolling Stones work was purely magical.

What is your favorite aspect of the work?

I really enjoy being able to work with such great and gifted musicians, bands like a-ha, Turbonegro and Royksopp. It’s a real kick to work with artists that really value the visual aspect of their career.

Stian Andersen (Photo by Ole Kristiansen)

How long have you been working with a-ha?

I did the promo shots for a-ha around the time of the ‘Minor Earth Major Sky’ album, I think it was just prior to the world tour. They needed some new shots for posters, press pictures and such. They contacted me, and that was it.

What is it like to work with a-ha?

Great, I love working with them. They are not easy to please, if you know what I mean, and that just brings out the best in me. They’ve been around such a long time so they have seen it all before. They’re not that easy to fool (laughs).

I rate them as one of the best pop bands ever to set foot on this planet, and I have been a fan since ‘Hunting High And Low’ was released 24 years ago.

I remember I was involved with the ‘Analogue’ shoot, there was a big production, and a lot of people involved. I was scouting different locations. I think I sent my assistants around half of Norway searching for good spots. I was e-mailing Magne the shots and I think he turned them all down! I was getting really, really stressed out. (laughs) And then I thought, “Just think basic, think, ‘Ok they booked you because they like your pictures and how you work.’ Don’t make it too complicated.” We ended up on the rooftop of my studio and in the back yard and shot the pictures there. And they turned out great.

You have to trust yourself and trust your artistic expressions.

Does the band have certain ideas about their image that you must adhere to?

This time around, before we went down to Brazil the general idea was to get promo shots for the new album basically. But they ended up both on the single cover and in the album booklet. There wasn’t much time to do it though, I think I had about 50 minutes.

It varies, sometimes I work around certain ideas, sometimes I don’t. They trust me to come up with some…good shit you know? (laughs) We have this, I guess you’d say good chemistry – it just feels right. They trust me to come up with stuff that suits their musical expression.

For the most part did all the band members agree on which shots to use, or were there any disagreements among them?

It’s strange but when it comes to the pictures and all, it’s quite hassle free. I do my pickings and they choose from that. It goes down quite easily actually.

When photographing do you take many shots and only use a very few? And how do you decide what gets used and what goes on the cutting room floor?

When we do the session, we shoot loads of stuff. Because all of the sudden people go blinking and the wind in someone’s hair looks funny, and there are so many different things that can really fuck up a picture. Everything has to be perfect. So you take a lot of pictures and then you have to do a lot of editing as well.

I couldn’t give them everything and make them decide for themselves; that would do their heads in looking at tons of pictures!

This time around, just before the single cover deadline, Martin Kvamme asked me for my top 4 picks and we took it from there.

Were there other concepts that you guys tried out that didn’t work out?

As I mentioned earlier there wasn’t really any time to try out other concepts apart from the two different locations you lot have already seen.

I scouted for locations the day before in Sao Paulo, took a bunch of shots with my iPhone that I showed the band during dinner later that day and we agreed on where to do the shoot.

On these pictures I worked quite freely, I knew we’d end up with some good promo shots, but from there I didn’t really know where it was going to be used; whether it would be a poster or maybe a single cover. I was just aiming for getting the best possible band shots.

Two of the promo pictures taken by Stian in Sao Paulo in March.

One of your photographs was used for the ‘Foot of the Mountain’ single cover, which was designed by Martin Kvamme. Did you have any input into his creative process, or did you give him the photo and wait to see what he created for the cover?

The design part is all about Martin, I never interfere with that. I just get down on my knees and pray that he is not going to tamper or fuck with them too much (laughs).

People have drawn some comparisons to Radiohead and other covers, but I think it’s quite unique.

I’ve heard some comparisons, but this is no rip-off. I do think the cover is living its own life and I think it stands for itself. It’s beautiful, I love it. It goes with the musical aspect, or the musical landscape, and the feeling of the album I think.

In comparison with the ‘Analogue’ promo pictures, which had some clouds in the background and a lot of sky in them, the newer pictures seem to be less organic. Was that deliberate?

I was quite lucky to be with them in the studio for a whole week during the recording sessions in New York before we went down to Brazil. That kind of input is priceless. Sometimes there’s not enough time to listen to the album, but I really like to have a feeling of the music when we do the photos.

There is a much more synth oriented feeling to this album than ‘Analogue.’ – So I wanted to get the same atmosphere going in the pictures, capture that vibe.

So you were also working with Apparatjik; was this in an official capacity or were you just hanging out with them taking pictures in a casual way?

It’s official in the way that I got a phone call from Magne inviting me to the recording session to do pictures. Nobody knew what was gonna come out of it. They didn’t want to dress up and pose for pictures like you normally do. Even though we have some in that direction anyway, that are quite funny and different.

I just hung around for a few days while they were recording and it was great. I didn’t know what to expect really, I didn’t have any expectation and it was much more experimental than I ever imagined. It was such a kick to be there. I stayed there one extra day just because I loved the sound of it.

So how does that differ from working with a-ha?

It was really, really casual, It was like a bunch of lads hanging out, eating good food, drinking wine, going skiing on the slopes and recording in the nighttime. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Are there any other projects you’re involved with?

I will show “Silent Side Of Rock´n Roll” a photo exhibition with the band Turbonegro at The Hove Festival in Norway this summer.

I’m also working on another exhibition at the Oya Festival shooting artists backstage, and this year I will work with the likes of Royksopp, Satyricon and MEW.

Previous years I have done artists like Beck, The Cramps, Pete Doherty, Justice and The Knife for this project. The exhibition will be at the festival site in Oslo.

You can also see the pictures on my website on the Music page in a section called ‘Backstage Sessions”.

Links

http://www.stianandersen.com
New a-ha photo book