Interview/tutorial led by Michel Romaggi in collaboration with author and artist The Jar - Geir Jartveit 
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the  23rd of March 2022

'WHEN COUPLES WALK TOGETHER'

Geir’s photographs look like paintings, close to abstraction.  These distorted, colourful characters whose only form and movements appear, are very surprising and sometimes even a little unsettling. I was eager to know how Geir gets this really artistic results.
Thank you for answering my questions ;-)

Before explaining about the technique to get this effects, I would like to ask you what brought you to this type of photography and what do you expect from it?

My name is Geir Jartveit, and my artist name is The Jar. I'm a photographer from Norway. I was born in 1966. When I was 17 years old, I bought my first camera.
We all have our unique stories. I have my story, and I want to be honest about it. I grew up in a Christian home and was exposed to bullying at school since the very first day. This lasted for 10 years. Whenever I think back, it´s like a black tunnel. Eight years ago, I encountered a psychological wall and was standing on the edge of the cliff. I sought professional help and this therapy got me through a difficult time. During this hard period, I started using photography in a completely different way as I hadn´t used it before.
Photography became my personal therapy to get out of a difficult time. I painted myself, using smoke and masks. It became a pressure valve where I got out everything that disturbed me inside. I couldn´t hold the façade any more, it was getting too hard. Photography became my rescue.

Ten years ago I visited the St. Mary´s Church in Gdansk. I randomly entered the memorial service for Poland´s President, Lech Kaczynski after the Smolensk Crash. I was so influenced by these mourning people. It felt like the music in the church took me to another place. Something happened to me there.  And then I came home and started treating pictures in a different way. My photos got shadows and became graphical. It wasn´t planned. It just came like steam out of a pressure cooker.

'THE DICTATOR'

Can you reveal some of your secrets from the moment you take a picture to the result we can see?  What about the post-processing?

It is not easy to write exactly and precisely about my workflow. Maybe in the future, I will make a video of my working process to show how I make these photos. But the most important is that everything is in our minds, what we want to tell from our souls and hearts.

The essential to me is the story behind the photo. If I manage to capture an emotion in a photo which touches the viewers, I feel very happy. I use a slow shutter speed in my artistic works. Sometimes it is a single photo, sometimes several photos used in the same frame. For me, it feels like I am using the camera like paint brushing. I like the blurry images in my art form.  It is really the opposite as for a nature photographer where sharpness and techniques are very important. I don´t really prepare much before I'm going out taking pictures. I like my work to be spontaneous rather than to shoot there and then.

What equipment do you use (camera, lenses,…)?

The camera I use is a Sony. I'm using two lenses. 100-400 mm Sony and 200-600 mm Sony. These lenses are perfect to me for a slow shutter speed. Afterwards, I import the photos in Lightroom. Most of the photos are finished there. For the images that I want to continue working on, I go to Photoshop using layers. I really like the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop. It also happens that I use Nick software for different structures.

'GENDER REVOLUTION'

How do you choose the scenes that you will then 'interpret' in your own original way?

I have different methods of working. Sometimes ideas and thoughts about a picture come across to my head. Then I can sit down and finish the picture in a short amount of time. Other times I will be sitting, listening to music, just thinking about the possibilities for that particular picture. I don´t have any plans, it just comes to me from the inside. When I work like this, it feels like the world is smiling at me, and I feel the inner pleasure. It feels like I am dancing with the photos.

What is your advice to beginners, Geir?
Don't be afraid of what others may say or think about your photos. That's the most important advice I can give.
Follow your heart and just be yourself.

Have fun with your photos after what ideas and feelings came to your mind. Don’t be tempted to copy other pictures.
Conceptual photography is about your personal expression. It is your own form of art which you are going to convey.

Do you have specific goals that you wish to achieve, Geir?

I have a lot of ideas. I want to use models and stage my expression with the help of effects. It´s not easy to plan out a specific direction I would like to take my photography in the future. But I am a creative person, and I feel that I will find that out eventually now that I have chosen to focus on something else than working as a service technician offshore. 

'LOOK AT ME NOW'

For those who are interested, here is the link to the full interview with Geir Jarveit published in the 1x magazine in September 2017 : https://1x.com/magazine/permalink/8238