The Danish Way of Life

There is nothing like the nervous feeling in your gut before the first critique of a new photo class. Last week, we looked at everyone's top 15 photos that reflected their "style". Watching these amazing images projected before me, I was in awe at all of the different styles, cultures and methods that were sitting in the same room as me. So far, this program has been excellent. I am surrounded by photojournalists who are as passionate about learning and being challenged as I am. We have already become a tightly woven community.

Last week, we were given our first assignment for the semester. "To get started, you have to do a 10 photo series with one of the following themes: Enthusiasm, 8210 Aarhus or the Danish way of life."

I chose the Danish way of life. Bicycles have become a major part of everyday life in Aarhus. The city has made it a goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. In order to move the process along even faster, they have placed a lot of emphasis on using bicycles as primary transportation.

I decided to do a story about bikes from the perspective of a bicycle repair shop. Meet Thomas, an 'extreme' mountain biker who has been tinkering with bicycles since he was 5. He works at Rowi's bike repair shop in the city center of Aarhus. As the weather gets warmer, he slowly brings out his mountain bike again to warm up for the jumps and competitions that come with the spring weather. This April, he will be participating in the Danish Downhill Classic.

The editing process was very intensive. For the first critique, the entire class looked at everyone's entire take. I have never been in a photo class so small, that we had time to look at all of the takes. This first critique was a good check in before heading back out again to Rowi. The final critique was a great learning experience and reaffirmed one of the main reasons I wanted to do this program. Mads, my teacher pulled up my 25 and said, "Ok Eve, choose your top 10 for the story. Go." One of the most important critiques any photo teacher has ever given me was Rita Reed this past semester. "Eve, I looked through your entire take. You need to work on your gut feeling when choosing photos as your selects." Rita couldn't have been more spot on. So, I put my bravest face on for my new teacher and picked my 10 selects. I tried to choose a variety of images that showed the atmosphere of the repair shop. After choosing my 10 images, Mads commented on the selection and asked my classmates for comments. From that point, we put the images in order together. Listening to my classmates and Mads talk about the different stories was a great learning experience.