We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gregers Heering. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gregers below.
Gregers, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
This is a big topic, a big question – maybe even the biggest one of them all… 🙂
So… Let me start by saying, I’m not sure I’ve found ‘the big purpose’ or that I ever will. As I age, I’m questioning whether purpose as in ‘one purpose’ exists at all. I don’t think so, Just as I no longer believe people have just ‘one self’, ‘one nature’.
What I DO believe is I don’t know. Maybe that’s IS the purpose on behalf of the universe or whatever spirituality or concepts you prefer.
What I trust Instead, is that it’s all all fragmented, pieces of energy, floating in- and outside of each one of us. I’m just a tiny drop in a big stew, one big collective. Thus, purposes come and go. It”s dynamic, not something stale. Everything is in constant motion.
My wife, good friends and the work of other people that inspires me, good and bad, have led me to trust that all one can do is to let go of any ‘ideas’, ‘expectations’, all that, including the often intoxicating idea of ‘ambition’. My ‘self’, for a lack of a better word, is far from being able to ‘figure it all out’. I try to remember that. All I can do is to throw it all up in the air, be as grateful and kind as I can and trust the universe. Then, I can focus on being free, open and positive, grabbing onto ideas and opportunities that I’m lucky enough to come my way along my path.
To me, that’s purpose.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a Danish photographer and filmmaker, living in Echo Park, Los Angeles. I’m married to Sarah (American) and together we have our 3-year old daughter, Maya, and our dog Elsa. I came to Los Angeles back in 2003 to attend film school at The American Film Institute (AFI). I thought I was going stay in LA for 2-3 years, now It’s been more than 20.
My journey has been far from linear, so I’ll jump straight to photography which is what I’ve spent most of my time on. That all took off in 2012 with a group exhibition, a pop-up show at the Soho House in Los Angeles, facilitated by ‘Gallery for the People’ an initiative at the time spearheaded by the driven and talented Icelandic producer, Eva Daniels, who have unfortunately left us recently at a far too young age.
I was lucky enough to have had my work being recommended by Nicolai Fuglsig, a fellow Dane and one of our most talented film directors and award-winning former photographer. Nicolai is a dear friend and has been a mentor for me. He showed my Greenland work to Eva and thus, I ended up showing along with names like Vanessa Praeger, whose work I greatly admire. Completely unexpected, I sold all my 8 pieces that night,
So although I at the time still thought I was going to be 100% devoted to being a filmmaker, I had fallen absolutely in love with the power of still photography and printmaking. I was drawn to the idea of just planting a seed in peoples’ head, something they could elaborate on and create their own experience out of.
Since, I’ve been lucky enough to do various bodies of personal work that are somewhat all interlinked although they are different in style and execution. None of series would have happened without what proceeded them. For instance, when I got a chance to photograph homicide detectives in the Southern US, the resulting gritty pictures landed me an invitation to come photograph with The Royal Danish Ballet at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. Likewise, ‘Greenland’ opened to the door to Majestic and so on.
The work always has it’s grounding in something real, often mundane that exists in my immediate surroundings. I never think ahead and the work is not pre-conceptualized or anything like that. I’ve tried going down that route at time, but guess that’s just not how my brain works. I prefer the immediacy of life 🙂
To stop up and be fully engaged with my camera is what drives me, it’s the closest I can come to being in the moment, And most often, I’m not referring to the ‘decisive moment’ but something much slower, taking it all in. If I have the opportunity to engage in an ‘exchange’, for instance with a stranger who allow me to take their picture, that is for me such a thrill and privilege. If I can even make them feel excited about how they excite me, that’s a very satisfying feeling to me. And the moment obviously live on for a long time after that in working with the print etc. If that brings someone something, also long after I’m gone, there’s purpose in that for me.
In all honesty, I’ve photographed most of my life. Think I got my first camera when I was about 8, it was a Polaroid 630. Ever since, I’ve always felt compelled to photograph for reasons I have no idea about. And my joy to see what comes out of a roll is still like ‘Christmas’, every time, just as it was when I was a kid.
If anyone cares about the technical aspect, I mostly work with analogue equipment throughout the process of my personal work. I have a 6×6 medium format camera as well as several 35mm cameras. These magical machines fit into the slow process I prefer in making each image on the spot, and I get excited about seeing the results in my head unlike on a screen immediately after. I prefer working with physical materials, including silver prints.
That being said, I’m not opposed to digital workflows at all. Some work is simply better suited for digital and giclee prints.
When it comes to focus… I’ve heard and read several artists talk about there’s no such thing as a ‘career’, that the work is more akin to a spiritual journey. I relate to that. Photography has and remain being an essential part of my spiritual journey.
So when it comes to focus, all I can ask for is to be free enough to share an experience in which I find beauty and excitement, often in the mundane.
To some that may sound presumptuous. yet I really believe my only job is to be free and open as I can. Whatever follows is not ‘mine’, but rather something I’m partaking in. If that can translate and give other people an experience, a moment to engage with and mentally complete on their own, well that would be my focus of choice.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Get out of your head. Nothing gets done by just thinking about it. This is something I’ve struggled with a lot myself over the years. Thoughts are generally not beneficial in any creative process. Even if they are, they will change dramatically when you first get into doing the work which will often lead into a whole different set of experiences than what you could thought up. At least, that’s my experience, and I have no doubt lost of a lot of productivity time from being caught up in my head.
2. Get inspired and remain curious, just don’t loose yourself in the seduction of other peoples work
No matter how much you feel you relate to them, their work, lifestyle, what they stand for etc. They are them and you are YOU.
Often what we’re experiencing in other peoples’ work is just the the end result. What matters is process. what you have and want to live with on a daily basis.
3. Condition yourself on a daily basis to remain as open, kind and grateful as you possibly can
Aside from growing your empathy, a sense of freedom (including from yourself) will often make you do good work, work that is derived from a feeling rather than thought.
I believe people do their best work from such a state of freedom, whether we’re talking a sense of freedom that feels warm and positive or the freedom to accumulate the courage to say what you need.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
My personal work is often about spending a lot of time on my own which can be insightful in so many ways,.
However, for my commissioned work as a photographer/director., I truly treasure and find so much joy and inspiration in working with other people. These typically come in two categories:
1) Writers and/or other types of creative collaborations .
Like many other things, photography is about a reaction to something. Take musicians as an example, I absolutely love working on creating visuals with them that can respond and work well with the world they’d already built through soundscapes. I’ve just made two music videos and a series of still images for a young, Danish artis and it was an awesome experience with everyone being super excited about the end result.
Another example are writers who are immersed into a world in which I can be of contribution. My own ‘Majestic’ body of work is an example of the fruitful collaboration between writer and photographer, resulting in a book I also had the pleasure of co-designing.
As both a photographer and as a director, I believe I span wide, ie. I’m quite versatile and feel confident in working across fields from fashion and more commercial opportunities to working with other artists as mentioned above.
2) People who are looking for a unique portraiture
I thrive on working with people in creating their picture. These are not necessarily ‘all happy smile pictures’, rather hopefully something that sticks a little deeper. It can be a slower process to get a feel for them, their world and the beauty unique to them.
Although we’re all photographers these days, I strongly believe in an old fashioned process where enough time is allocated to find the right spirit and timing in creating something unique together. Finding the quiet moments where the soul thrives.
The images are often made on film and utilizing analogue printing processes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thisisgregers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisgregers/
- Linkedin: https://thisisgregers.com/
Image Credits
Gregers Heering, gallery Christoffer Egelund
