“I struggled to find my identity as a painter; however, when I first started to use photography as a medium, I had found my personal style immediately,” says photographer Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen to the Phoblographer in an interview. Despite this, one would think she’s using Photoshop to make the results you see before you. But that’s wrong. In fact, she’s doing it all in-camera. Henriette’s work is incredibly human and imperative at a time when we find ourselves in the media challenged with AI in photography.
All images by Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen. Used with permission. Follow her on PhotoVogue, Instagram, and her website. Want to be featured too? See here to see how we can spotlight your work.
How Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen Got Started
Henriette started by taking a course in photography at Georgia Southern University. “My photography teacher Jessica Hines taught us how to use the medium to express ourselves artistically,” she recounts. “Before this, I thought of photography only as a journalistic medium. This realization made me change my primary medium from painting to photography.” Indeed, this is what some might call a problem with the world of education and our culture. Modern culture doesn’t treat photography as something special. And it’s often because we don’t put much value on photos, primarily due to mobile photography and social media.
Eventually, Henriette moved back to Denmark, where she’s from, and started submitting to PhotoVogue. She submitted photos daily. Eventually, she was scouted for commercial jobs and exhibitions and made tons of contacts throughout the industry to expand her network. Sounds better than Instagram, right?
She uses the Sony a7r III with a 24-70mm lens. “I don’t think it helps me achieve my creative vision, but I like that the weight is very light, and it allows me to make huge prints of my work,” she tells us. “For me, the camera is rather a tool to capture what I create in front of the lens.” Additionally, sometimes she uses a Profoto B1 flash when the sun is down. Of course, her work is done in nature, as she tells us it can’t be done in a studio. She wouldn’t, for example, want a ceiling reflected.
Her Surreal Photography
Henriette’s photos are a breath of fresh air that do so many different things. They slap the patriarchal ideas of what makes a good photo with sharpness and all that stuff. Instead, they focus on the moment, conceptual thoughts, feelings, etc. Further, they don’t conform to what we see in the media or advertising with body norms. Instead, the traditional flaws are played into far more, thanks in part to her background in painting.
“Here, photography can do something that a painting cannot because you have a realistic expectation to photography, as it is also used as a tool to document reality,” Henriette tells us. “My style is also a study of the boundary between painting and photography, as I have a very experimental approach to my work. I started experimenting with distortion because it could give me this interesting painterly effect.” Her inspiration comes from the scientific way of observing reality and the world. So for this, she plays with mirrors and all. And this started out because she was just curious about using different tools to create images and manipulate reality rather than Photoshop. That’s right, these images aren’t primarily photoshopped.
She uses various kinds of mirrors and reflective material to make these photos when making distortions and illusions. Photoshop is only then used for color and light editing. Sometimes, she shows up in the reflections and clones herself.
For Henriette, the mirror is a symbolic boundary between reality and imagination. She’s a medical doctor for a living, so she has one foot in science and another in art.
The photographs contrast different colors. We see skin, skies, the earth, and all working to make one another stand out. But we also don’t see ideas using bokeh or depth of field. Instead, when we look at the images, our eyes naturally understand what we see. Henriette likes working with the nude body and nature because they’re natural! To her, it creates a clash between the familiar and oddities.
According to The Theory of Relativity, you can bend space and time. I illustrate my distortions by bending light rays with mirrors. The weather is essential in my work, as I almost always shoot outdoors with intense sunlight and a blue sky. This way, the colors will appear the most vibrant and beautiful.
Henriette Sabroe Ebbesen
Most importantly, Henriette wants people to purposely question what they see. She can bend reality in many ways, but the viewer has to sit and stare at the photos to understand them. This is far different from those who just scroll past images mindlessly.
