About

I’m the artist, photographer and filmmaker behind Loke Utgard Productions.

I’ve worked professionally with photography, video and other media for more than a decade. I still make conventional commercial work too. Some of it is interesting, some of it is simply work. It pays the bills and helps fund the stranger, riskier and more personal things nobody commissioned me to make.

These days I’m less interested in photography as a technical exercise and much more interested in what I can use it to explore.

People are usually the interesting part.

Personality. Attraction. Secrets. Awkwardness. Confidence. Vulnerability. Humour. The difference between how somebody presents themselves and what starts appearing when they forget about presenting anything at all.

Somehow I’ve also suddenly found myself in the strange role of being a man in midlife haha.

Not the guy going to the newest clubs or pretending to set trends anymore, but not exactly ready to become beige either.

That transition interests me. Ageing. Desire. Identity. Confidence. Shame. Curiosity. The respectable version of ourselves we show publicly and whatever the hell is actually going on underneath.

I’m fairly private and shy in ordinary life, and probably much quieter on the outside than the amount of stuff going on in my head would suggest.

That contradiction probably explains some of the work.

Sometimes an idea becomes a simple portrait. Sometimes a short film. Sometimes something strange, funny, uncomfortable, explicit, provocative or difficult to categorise.

I’ve always been drawn to artists and filmmakers willing to leave imperfections, awkwardness and discomfort in the work rather than polishing everything away. Lars von Trier and the old Dogme idea probably sit somewhere in the back of my head there. Not because I want to imitate the style, but because I like the basic thought that the person and the moment should matter more than the machinery around them.

I use whatever serves the idea. A modern camera, an old camcorder from a second-hand shop, a phone, a Polaroid, natural light or a carefully lit room.

Gear matters when it helps. It isn’t the point.

Loke Utgard is the professional identity I use for this independent work, keeping a clear separation between the work and my private life.

I work small and independently and handle most parts of a production myself, including planning, camera, lighting and editing. Depending on the project I may stay behind the camera or also appear in front of it.

The people I enjoy working with most aren’t simply good at posing or following instructions. They bring something of themselves. They question things, suggest things, disagree sometimes and occasionally turn an idea into something neither of us expected.

Most importantly, they are themselves.

High production quality does not have to look highly produced.