Signs of Spring 2

Karin Ott

The artist statement accompanying this body of work from my portfolio:

The concept of spring is vital to the Danish people. We are a nation of bi-polars. At the darkest time of year we have only eight hours of light while at midsummer it gets light at 5 a.m. and only barely dark by 11 p.m. In the winter we ground, bundle up, almost hibernate, and often tempers are as short as the day. In the summer we are transformed to outgoing people eager to make the most of every single moment of the gift of light.

The transition from darkness to light is marked by signs deeply ingrained in the natives. Every child knows the sequence of the flowers – eranthis, snowdrop, crocus – these milestones in measuring the progress. Every adult will stop and sniff the air through layers of winter clothes on the day of the undefinable turning point. And we all notice how the sun will finally both warm us to our chilled bones and mercilessly reveal the dirty windows and the dust piled up through the dark months.

Spring is a time of anticipation with summer still far enough in the future to promise to fulfill every dream we ever had.

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Skelgårdskirken 7, 2014

Karin Ott

Now how often would you see a fully dressed bishop with four priests in tow strolling past CENTERBURGER? 🙂

The story here is the one I covered. The other images in this series were taken during my preparations for the anniversary and for my own enjoyment but the real objective was to cover the 25’th birthday of the church. To celebrate, the bishop had come and as the church is placed right next to a small mall the procession passed both a burger place and a parking lot.

Locals will recognize this image from the front page of the September issue of Tårnby Bladet (a wooping 21,000 copies).

Peberholmen 1, 2014

Karin Ott

I’m going to take a short break from the Holga images. I will be back but even though I love the look, sometimes you need a break from the break 🙂

I’m going to share with you a short series of images from a small artificial island, Peberholmen. It lies in the water between Sweden and Denmark and was created from mud from the bottom of the sea 15 years ago in connection with building the bridge between Denmark and Sweden. Stopping on the island is not a choice but recently I was able to go a tour of Peberholmen.

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 – 11

Karin Ott

And the winner is… Conchita Wurst a.k.a The Queen of Austria!

Somewhere on Facebook the question was asked if “Rise like a Phoenix” would have won if it had not been performed by a drag queen. Good question. There was something oddly moving about the song I hadn’t expected in advance. On the other hand I think the main reason for Austria winning was the artist.

This is the most political Eurovision Song Contest I can recall. I didn’t approve of people booing at the voting. I also know it had been attempted to tell people to focus on music rather than politics because I was present at the last dress rehearsal. I experience an ever growing dislike of Russia and a frustration that we haven’t been able to really do anything to vent our frustration. But what we could do was vote and Europe did. And Russia has added to the fun by being openly appalled.

Make love, not war!

I’ll wrap up my Eurovision special by posting a few more of my favorite images. Tomorrow I’ll be back to the usual ‘one image a day’ format.

Karin Ott

Karin Ott

Karin Ott

Karin Ott

Karin Ott

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 – 5

Karin Ott

My reason for going to the venue today was to capture an image of this young man, Basim. He is representing Denmark with a very catchy pop song that most of us can sing along to by now. I have no doubt the people in charge of the National Danish Radio hopes he doesn’t win. It is horribly expensive to host the international event – a task that falls to the winning nation.

The press was not allowed inside the hall today but I have a few images from the other days I want to share. I found myself immensely fascinated with all the heavy equipment around the stage. This is what it looks like in front rather than on the stage during rehearsals.

Karin Ott

And if you look at the stage but not at the singers, you might see this sight…

Karin Ott

Copenhagen 5, 2013

Karin Ott

Time to play the tourist…

View of the Marble Church across the square of Amalienborg. You can’t call Amalienborg a castle though the Queen lives here. They are four identical but separate buildings that were not originally meant to house the royal family.

I like how there’s free access to the area. You can walk right up to the buildings, even drive across the square. All you’ll see is the famous royal guard with their bearskin hats in front of their little red houses.