Per erik langaanes
… is my name and I have made all the photographs on this site.
I was born in Bærum (outside Oslo), Norway in 1958. Today my residence is on a small farm, deep into the woods of Trysil.
Trysil is a large tourist destination in Norway, lying 220 km north of Oslo close to the Swedish border. A wonderful place for skiing (both downhill and cross-country), bicycling, mountain/forest walks, hunting, angling (Scandinavia’s largest river runs thru the region) and of course nature photography.
I have been photographing since 1974. That year I had saved enough money to buy my first SLR camera. In my world at that time, a big investment since I was a young student. The next decades I was doing essentially family pictures and bringing my camera in trips especially out in the nature, participating in a few photographic competitions.
Buying my first DSLR in 2007, gave me a new kick even though I found the change from analog to digital rather steep. When I rounded 50 years, my wife thought a better camera would be a better present than buying a Harley Davidson motorbike (I guess she figured out this was a safer choice). At that time, Nikon came out with D800 model, even today a wonderful camera, and there we go with new cameras, lenses and other equipment. Of course, the private economy is in another league than in the days as a student, meaning you can get what you want…
However, that does not guarantee for quality in the pictures. To take good pictures has been a long run maturing over the years, at least for me. Today, I feel the time has come to show some of them to an audience.
I hope you like what you are seeing!
historic influence.
Looking back, unconscious influences have formed my photographic style and the type of pictures I like. At home where I grew up as a child, there were not many books in the shelf. However, my parents got a gift from American relatives in the early 60’s.
This was “The Family of Man” created by Edward Steichen. Moreover, what a book this was for a young boy with pictures of all aspects in life thru daily relationships captured by some of the best artists at that time. Of course, I did not realize the photographic quality of the book as a child, but the pictures thrilled me.
Some of them showing aspects of life that you hardly could ask any adults about; I just looked at the pictures in curiosity and silence for myself. However, at the place in my life now, I have begun to realize the deep impact these pictures had on me.
Among my favorite photographers, I want to mention Ansel Adams, John Sexton, Dorothea Lange, Lennart Nilsson, Christer Strömholm, Morten Krogvold, Pål Hermansen, Terje Hellesø and Jørn Bøhmer Olsen/Rolf Sørensen. I also admire most of the photographers represented in “The Family of Man”.
I have already mentioned three of them, but in the book, you will find photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Wayne Miller, Ernst Haas, Edward Weston, Bill Brandt, Alfred Eisenstaedt and W. Eugene Smith among many others! In the Nordic countries today, we have a broad specter of hardworking and clever photographers that are both inspiring and worth to have look at.
I regularly read magazines like Fotografi (Norwegian) and Camera Natura (Nordic) who are fronting them in a good manner putting the picture itself in the center. Internationally I love Black & White Magazine with no camera talk, only the fine art photography.