"I see, shoot and share -
that's all - I think."

 

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People and countries

Informal photo homepage

Jan Oberg PhotoGraphics

• Burundi 2003, 2006 and 2007

• Bilbao and its Guggenheim Museum 2005

• Greenland and Nuuk 2005
With Gitte Arvegaard

• Seoul and the De-Militarised Zone - 2003

• Iraq - faces and surfaces
2002-2003

• Pristina, Kosovo 2000

• Belgrade, Serbia - 2000

• Serbia suffering - 2000

• Montenegro - 2000

Flowers and landscapes

• Tulips - Two lips - 30 close-ups of tulips 2006

• Foggy Frost
2006

• Bird Song Valley, Southern Sweden 2004

THIS PICTURE SHOWS my camera and I the moment we take the picture of a mirror image in a steel ball in Seoul. A photographer steps into reality and turns the camera into an extra attentive eye on the world. The result reflects back on him or her in the sense that the final picture is pure subjective interpretation and manipulation. It is indeed reality, but it is also something else.

I got my first simple camera at the age of 7 and I've taken pictures ever since. Small black-and-white photos to begin with, then colour pictures and, for many years, slides. Then came the digital revolution and I began posting simple photo series on TFF's website in 2000. I got the idea because I wanted to convey the human suffering I had seen in Serbia after it had been bombed. More series followed.

Pictures speak to us in ways different from text. My photo series from Iraq seems to be one of the most accessed documents on TFF's site.

I like photography. It sharpens my senses, particularly when travelling. It helps me remember people, milieus and situations, but I also search the beauty of small, overlooked everyday objects. I also enjoy manipulating the raw pictures in PhotoShop - today's dark room - which is a good pastime when I need to do something less intellectually demanding than research and writing.

I have not set up my own photo site separately from TFF's. There is a connection between my professional work and most of these picture series. This website bombards you with the problems of the world; I think it is important to also convey the beauty this world still holds when we open our senses to it. About the images that are not at all related to professional travels and conflict areas, I can only say: There is nothing wrong with a moment of inspiration and hope, of meditation or dreaming - indeed who can live without it?

Not for a second do I claim to be a photographer. Some of the early series at least are technically faulty, taken with a very simple camera. Other people take much more interesting and technically advanced pictures. I just try to get better as time goes by - and wish I had more time.

Today I use a more advanced digital Fujifilm FinPix 4900 Zoom camera from 2000. I bought it in 2003 and I use no extra lenses, no tripod and seldom arrange my motives. I simply shoot, process and share my pictures. Apart from the fun of it, photography is a tool for learning and appreciating the world in all its diversity. And I certainly do.

Finally, if you want to use a picture or have questions, comments or suggestions, please write to me by clicking on "Contact us" in the left menu. The web editions here are all in the 75 dpi format. Originals of the recent series can be enlarged to 500 dpi.