Photographer Siv D. Rognstad, Norway
Three years old, I found my secret (and sacred) place behind the piano. I used to sit there with my «thinking-cap», just coming out to put a tremendous pressure on my mother: I wanted to learn how to write! With her hand over mine, I managed to express all my thoughts and ideas. Later, my words became richer. My pen is sharper, – but also a lot more playful.
[photo right: ‘Tied-up’ by Siv Rognstad]
At the age of three, an uncle let me use his camera. The people I portrayed were constantly short of head or feet. The same uncle gave me my very first own camera when I was ten. After getting bored with the Christmas parties and birthday parties, I started playing around with different kinds of light sources and abstract objects. I have developed more creative and technical skills under the supervision of photographer Olav Erik Storm in Storm Photography [Oslo, Norway].
The project, I am working on now, is about text and photography. I want to see how they fit together; contrast each other or complement each other. Sometimes I photograph words, sometimes I write my words into the photograph, and sometimes I put them up next to each other.
Photo no 3 from 2 x FEM series by Siv Rognstad, 2010. A translation of the Norwegian text on the above photo reads:
peaking through and inside – our initials like crushed drops of water on a glassy surface – apparently
Photo no 1 from 2 x FEM series by Siv Rognstad, 2010. A translation of the Norwegian text on the above photo reads:
some openings are highlighted where you least expect to find this sudden taste of sweet scattered crystals over nervous skin
Photo no 2 from 2 x FEM series by Siv Rognstad, 2010. A translation of the Norwegian text on the above photo reads:
the sharpest comment of them all is the one that hits the solar plexus region – all other regions are ok
About Siv Desiree Rognstad
Photographer and lesbian Siv was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA in 1960. She is based in Oslo and has been showing her works in Norway for the last 10 years. Siv is a member of ‘Skeive Kunstnere’, a group of queer artists in Oslo. Her earlier exhibitions and events are:
- Open art, Pride park, June 2010 with The Oslo queer artists ‘Skeive Kunstnere’
- Open art, Deichmann public library, June, July and August 2010 with The Oslo queer artists ‘Skeive Kunstnere’
- Queer movements Albin Art, Oslo, September 2009 together with painter and mural artist Bibbi Elise Bagguley
- The visual perfomance jagged, Torshov theatre, Oslo, November 2001 (regi Vibéke Heide)
- Staged reading with the text jagged, The Open Theatre, Oslo, Oktober 2000
Photo: ‘Blurry-blues’, 70×50 cm by Siv Rognstad, Norway