Journal of photographer Flemming Bo Jensen

Photographer, Time Traveler, Writer and Nomad

Three Trips Around The Sun

Posted on April 30th, 2012

Timeline: Namibia, 8 April 2009. My time machine splashed down in the dry desert climate at Windhoek airport. Vivid is the memory of standing on the hot dusty runway after exiting the plane and for some reason I started spinning, smiling at the huge sky. I basically kickstarted my life as a nomad time traveling photographer there and then. Broke out of my too-closed too-small little-hope life.

Timeline: Copenhagen, April 2012. 3 trips around the sun, 3 years have passed but time is relative. Feels like 3 years, feels like 30 years, feels like yesterday. When you live like a time traveling gypsy, living everywhere and nowhere, time is circular and often irrelevant. I lived a lifetime in these 3 years yet some days it seems that just a few days has gone by as no matter where I go, most things happened to me in other places.

Timeline: Copenhagen, Now. It is amazing to see family and old friends again and I have a feeling the future can be rather exciting. Interesting projects are brewing and my mind seems clearer, working, in good shape. Able to gaze hopefully into the future. And reflect on the past with fewer train crashes of the mind.

Three trips around the sun and I gained the world. Paid a prize for it, broke myself a little bit, but gained the world. I gained a worldwide network of brilliant friends, more than I could ever hope for. Had I an actual time and space machine I would visit you all every week. Visited some very interesting corners of the Earth and met interesting people. Evolved my photography by leaps and bounds and occasionally made an interesting picture. Learned a great deal about the world and an even greater deal about me.

Made lots of stupid choices. Lost some friends. Hurt some people. So sorry. Got broken. Healed. Regrets? Some. Wouldn’t change a thing goes the saying but it’s not true, there’s a few things I would really like to change. Cannot and am not supposed to. It is only a pretend-timemachine I have. And no regrets in taking off 3 years ago. Living on the road becomes an everyday life as well. It has nothing to do with a ‘trip’ or ‘holiday’. Often my life makes no sense and it bothers me. But it’s simply life and still just life, like our world, it is amazing and awful, funny and sad, highs and lows, good and bad choices. It is a strange, dark, mad life and world, so much beauty and so much despair. So much yet to see. So very addictive.

It is life but a lot more amplified living like this, volume on 11, intense compressed roller coaster ride of emotions and no base nor routine to stop you drowning on the bad days. Not sure I would ever recommend it to anyone. A side of me would rather curl up in a corner and hide forever. But another side throws the cap over the wall and says ‘no choice but to go get it now’. No base, stability, routine but then again, there is no ceiling and no limit on the good days. No strings, Gepetto.

Timeline: Future. I hope the future is soon. Hope I can will two projects to happen. “You opened Pandora’s Box” a dear friend said the other day. Yes, and there’s no closing it. “With all that you have seen, all you have done, there’s no going back. It would drive you insane. Tear you apart” — Doctor Who. Nor do I want to go back. Must make these projects work and my peculiar way of life work.

Inspired by the three trips around the sun, places I have been, people and have met — and very recently, NGO project managers I met in Argentina — I feel a burning desire to work for a humanitarian organization managing projects abroad, stationed around the world. Not content with just observing and documenting anymore I wish to attempt to help, use my skills to make a difference–for some people at least. My photography will continue with the same dedication slash obsession, working on personal projects and becoming a skilled documentary photographer. There is an exciting secret project with my friend Mark Stothard. And a trip to New Mexico coming up that I’m awfully excited about. With luck I will also find a small cheap place in Copenhagen to be a home, a base.

Gained the world and I feel it has only just started. Yes I trust the future is soon. And the next many trips around the sun are looking quite interesting. See you in the universe.

1st image by Amy Kawadler (gracias my friend–you nailed it!), Peru, 2011.
2nd image, self portrait, Broome, Australia, 2010.
Categories: Photo, Photography, Travel

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Puedo tomar una foto?

Posted on April 17th, 2012

It had proved to be surprisingly hard. Almost everyone said no. Some people even ducked and escaped the streets as soon as they spotted my camera. No amount of small talk by me could convince people to be in the frame. Getting any portraits in the small Andes Mountain towns of northwestern Argentina required stealing images. Maybe I was just having really bad luck. Every day.

But this lovely woman in the desert town of San Antonio de Los Cobres was different. She initially said no as she passed me. Expecting this, I just shrugged, smiled and sat down in the shade. You have to sit in the shade in San Antonio de Los Cobres. The sun in the desert at 3.8k altitude boils your skin. She takes an interest. This tall (I am about twice her height) weird alien is too strange to ignore, and she sits down next to me.

We talk. Well, she talks a lot. I answer in my basic Spanish. I like the way she laughs almost the same way I do. Her face tells the story of living in these extreme conditions. She’s lived here all her life she says. I look at her kind and warm eyes, skin cut like laser by the fierce sun and warm wind. It is very warm here today, her scarf and hat is protection. “Take my picture” she says, surprising me. I lean back so the blinding sun blows out the background. Her expression is perfectly her, the image a perfect memory of her. Wish I could remember her name.

Categories: Argentina, Photo, Photography, Portrait, South America

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The Upside-Down Diaries 2012

Posted on April 6th, 2012

If it’s time to go, remember what you’re leaving. Remember the best. My friends have always been the best of me. Farewell Australia, so long Australian friends, see you soon in the universe. My time machine has — a bit on the slow side — brought me half way around the world, again. Splashed down in Copenhagen Tuesday afternoon. In saying goodbye to my friends in my second home land of Australia, there are no words for expressing my gratitude. Thank you so much. Substituting images for words, enjoy this slideshow of some off-beat images from my Upside-Down Diaries 2012:

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

In mentioning names, I apologize should I forget a few: Very special mega thanks to my buddy in all things epic, True North Mark – and Lee-Anne. Jedi soul mate Charlene, see you in New Mexico my dear friend! Christian, Jen, always awesome and the Fletcher Resort rocks. Nigel, Helen, Peta, Greg & Maria, Jeanne & Ken, Dave, Andrea, Paul, Mark G, Greg T, Glenn, Steph, list goes on, I am so fortunate to know you all – cheers mates! Till next time, be well.
Hello Denmark, greetings Danish friends and family. A new adventure commences. May the force be with us all.

Categories: Australia, Landscape, Perth, Photo, Photography, Portrait, Travel

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Street Photography in South America

Posted on March 25th, 2012

Street photography. Look it up in the dictionary and it could say: ‘See Henri Cartier-Bresson and his decisive moment. Also see under very hard’. It can be really frustrating, and really rewarding. “You need a great moment, and some great light, and then you need to actually be there at just the right time to capture it, and then you must create an interesting composition and image of all these elements. The changes of all of this happening at the same time, are very very small” — Said by, I believe, Doug Menuez and very true.

South America was for me, a trip to delve much deeper into and learn street- and documentary photography. Also the subject of the Photoexperience.Net workshop in Peru. For months I wandered the streets of towns in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Every day, hours and hours of walking and searching, searching for the light, the moment, the skill, the vision to have it make sense, make some great images of great moments. Sometimes (read: rarely) I would get up and walk the streets in the morning, but always I would walk the streets in the afternoon and evening shooting and failing, lots of learning by failing. Some days, here it is a market in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, I would have great light and shoot straight into beautiful soft afternoon light, diffused by clouds but still casting shadows, wishing, wanting for a great shot but mostly just getting the light and nothing else:

But where’s the moment, that moment of real-life worth capturing? Not interested in banalities, nor comic moments but some real life moments with meaning, be it sad, happy, absurd or scary, and a view into the life of others. So you shoot. Shooting hundreds of shots, sometimes several days without anything even remotely usable at all. Street and documentary photography demands this. Tests your patience (and I have little). It kicks your arse, tells you to go deeper, to find more meaning, give more of yourself, get over yourself, get in there, get closer, then get closer again. It seriously frustrated me many, many days and on top of that, most people in Argentina and Bolivia said no! to any type of shots and hid when they saw my camera. Most images were shot candidly and stealthily, like a thief on streets stealing moments and images. Not my favourite feeling. “Get over yourself, get in there, get closer, get images, find the image within the image” but many days I failed this. Then, in those once in a blue moon moments where everything comes together, it is an inspiring moment of great joy to have frozen a worthy moment in a worthy image. Again, Santa Cruz, Bolivia and one of my favourites from South America. A strange composition to many I am sure, but I like the three women, their expressions, the frozen moment, the zig zag of the light and shadow in the image:

Many things finally clicked in the workshop in Peru taught by Daniel Milnor and Adam Weintraub. Many weeks of frustration was rewarded when things suddenly made sense, technique and vision started coming together and the pieces of the puzzle in the street and layers in the street image all began to feel natural. Street photography is always hard, supposed to be hard, will continue to kick and trip me, but feeling inspired and enlightened by months of practice and then the workshop I shall keep walking, keep searching, keep shooting. Get over myself, get closer, get deeper, realise that great images takes a lot of work and happens very rarely.

Categories: Bolivia, Photo, Photography, South America, Travel

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Peru Photo Story: Inca ruins of Moray

Posted on March 7th, 2012

Our spaceship made quite an impression in the ground when we landed here, is my first thought as I look down at the Inca ruins of Moray in Peru. My mind is a bit warped. Memories of spaceships are interrupted by Daniel Milnor – “Give me a story. You have an hour to shoot this site, give me 5-7 images, I’m your editor, there’s 400 bucks in it if you pull it off, if not you’re fired, it’s tough times in the magazine world”. I better get to work and the result is photo essay 4 from the brilliant Photoexperience.Net workshop in Peru:

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

While not my favourite photo story from Peru, it is possibly my favourite ‘assignment’. A good and fun challenge to produce a story at this location, I am not that excited by ruins so without the assignment I possibly would not have shot much. With the photo story assignment in mind, the location became quite exciting and I stalked all the tourists up and down to get shots. It is a great way to work, create mini stories every place you go, I find that it really helps me to have that mindset, creating picture packages. Dan has written more about picture packages on his blog.

Some of the photos are interesting failures, ie I do not know what happened to my focusing in image 1. Some of them I quite like, image 8 is one of my favourite images from Peru, showcasing the Inca ruins versus surreal modern day Peru where souvenirs are sold by women in traditional dresses. How well the picture package works as a whole? Have not been ‘paid’ nor ‘fired’ yet, so possibly the jury is still out as we ran out of time (we were busy with important things like consuming pisco) to do group review four where I would have presented my story — Spaceship landing site at inca ruins of Moray.

Categories: Landscape, Peru, Photo, Photography, Portrait, South America, Travel

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Copenhagen Photo Festival meets Peru

Posted on February 29th, 2012

Prints, prints, glorious prints. Presently fifteen 6×8 prints and 185 much smaller prints, all from my Peru work, grace the floor of the boat. Attempting to produce an edit that will be my submission for exhibiting at the Copenhagen Photo Festival in June. Some of the exhibitions last year impressed me much, and I have decided to submit an application.

It has been almost 3 years. 3 years since I took off for Namibia in April 2009, starting my current life as a time traveling photographer gypsy. It seems like 30 years in some ways although I naturally remember take-off as it was yesterday. Everything seems like yesterday. Everything seems like a long, long time ago. So many memories. When I return to Copenhagen I shall look for a new home and a job. A rooted existence – for a while anyway.

The Copenhagen Photo Festival then, is perfect timing for my first exhibition in Copenhagen. This has me rather excited. It would mean a tremendous lot to me to exhibit in my home city. Showing friends and family and everyone a small taste of my work, my travels, my life on the road. Not feeling the need to explain or justify, but feeling the need to share, yes it would have enormous personal meaning for me.

In the words of Tim Winton, because his words are much better than mine -

“…to be remembered as someone who did something completely pointless and beautiful. In this at least, he should need no explanation.”

My submission features work from Peru. It is my most current work, best work and the work which excites me the most. It is documentary images and my edit will hopefully tell interesting stories in an exhibition. I daydream of a larger exhibition featuring all 3 years. First, let us see how this application fares. Fingers crossed, use the force — this is the application you have been looking for.

(In Peru with Adam Weintraub on PhotoExperience.net workshop)

Categories: Peru, Photo, Photography, Portrait, South America, Travel

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DiTL – Day in the Life of

Posted on February 28th, 2012

Last year I had the pleasure of participating in Rear Curtain‘s DiTL – Day in the Life Of - project. Published two months ago, I am catching up on a backlog of stories from my blogging hiatus.

It was a very interesting and fun challenge to document a “day” in my life. My story is not a day but moments in my life at that particular time — captured while I visited Copenhagen in Summer 2011. Fuji X100, Canon 5D, iphone, anything I had on me was used to document moments. How to transform the moments that mean something to me into images was my main challenge and source of many a swear word. Images never come easy.

Thanks very much to the Rear Curtain crew, the awesome DiTL crew of Charlene Winfred (the excellent nag-in-chief!), Rad Deverala, Radek Kozak, Sharon Barnes and Thomas Schmidt.

Click the image to read my DiTL story. Do also read the other brilliant DiTL entries here.

Categories: Copenhagen, Denmark, Photo, Photography, Portrait

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Coliseo de Gallos

Posted on February 15th, 2012

One of the ever present tiny taxis of Cusco, Peru, takes me to the Coliseo de Gallos. The driver is chatty and although I miss half the words due to my basic Spanish and the noise from the engine threatening to blow up, we have a fine conversation. He is excited to be bringing a gringo to the event. Wants to know if I enjoy them, the fights, the betting, the action. “No se amigo” — I would not know, this is my first!

Six soles and a hasta lluego later, I have arrived. I look for el boletero, where do I buy my ticket? Confounded, I look at others and reverse engineer. A tiny hole in the wall, not much bigger than my hand, holds the secret to getting in. 30 soles and a ticket are exchanged. All I see is a hand, I wonder what is at the other end. I forget about my stomach ache and my cold and excitedly enter the Coliseo. The coliseum houses a famous and infamous Peruvian tradition – cockfights.

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It appears to be a quiet day, the coliseum is barely half full. It is an overcast cold Summer day. Still, the air is filled with anticipation, laughter and a thirst for action (and Cusqueña cervesas). I am the only gringo, I circle and become familiar with the place, the people, the action. I capture a few images on the edge, easing my way in. A fight is about to start. The roosters are fitted with the long sharp silvery spurs. “Izquierda”, “derecho”. Bets are made on the left or right side rooster. The tension builds. I ask for permission to enter the arena and shoot the preparations, am granted a “si si amigo” with a friendly smile and waved into the arena. Everyone reminds me “sin flash sin flash amigo!”. Claro, no problemo. No flash shooting for me, I do not wish to see a rooster in a blinded-by-the-flash freaked out rage chase me around the arena with a silver knife strapped to it’s leg (others might find that idea quite amusing though).

We leave the arena, the fight begins, the roosters circle each other. First fight is non dramatic, the roosters do not want to engage despite much egging on by the crowd and managers. “This was not so bad” I think, not really liking the whole concept of humans making animals fight. Next fight, different story. Rooster Derecho is violently slain dead in 30 seconds by a vicious rooster Izquierda. Crowd is excited. Stunned, I stop shooting. Loco. That was insane, dramatic, violent and bloody. The whole place is insane. And very interesting. Steeped in tradition, culture, violence, betting, life death and anarchy. Loud music is pumped out between the fights. Beer, lots of beer is inhaled. I must keep shooting and pick up the camera again.

The music is muted. Anticipation is high, tension can be tasted in the air. Final bets are made. New fights begin. Working the scene is a joy as it usually is in Peru, everyone allows me to go where I like. And get in close. This is intense, this odd micro cosmos contained within the Coliseo.

Two hours pass quickly, I walk out the gates and re-enter Cusco, insert myself into another tiny taxi, taking me to an Indian restaurant to meet Adam Weintraub and family. Loco. This whole day has been insane. And rather awesome. Started off the day in the Amazon jungle, returned to Cusco, experienced a very Peruvian event, the cockfights, and am now at an Indian restaurant with my Cusco friends. Only in Peru.

Thanks to Adam, Carlos and Maria for the Coliseo de Gallos experience.

This post features a SlideshowPro flash gallery. Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls. Do try the full screen mode (icon in bottom right corner of slideshow) – looks rather nice!

Categories: Peru, Photo, Photography, Portrait, South America, Travel

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Glenn Baker

Posted on February 7th, 2012

 

Meet Glenn Baker. Glenn arrived from the 50s in his time machine wearing white sneakers, blue jeans and a black T-shirt. Glenn has seen a bit of mileage, so has the old cars and trucks that Glenn restores. Glenn breathes new life into them, takes them to a level of artwork. Glenn has looks and character to even outshine the cars.

Categories: Australia, Photo, Photography, Portrait

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