creative statement
Aligning head, eye and heart; the photography way of life
I take pictures because I hope to be a voice for people the world should know about, maybe because of their efforts to make something, or their struggle to make it in a desperate situation. I photograph (or videofilm) people, capturing a moment of their life, their work, their creation of something. I want this to inspire other people, so that they go and make something happen. I want to change the world.
My interest for photography started when I was six years old. My grandfather gave me his Kodak Brownie camera, and I discovered I could stop time with it. During middle school I attended photography and darkroom training, got my own b&w equipment and started teaching others as well as delivering pictures to the local newspaper. My friends started saying: “There’s Basil, he must have a darkroom here somewhere…”
The normal thing to do would be to go full time pro, with a newspaper or my own studio. I decided not to. I wanted to be different, to do more, on my own terms. So I started another career, combining that with creative work, expanding into graphic design, desk top publishing and use of the web. I had my epiphanies, and later, in another world, I went full time, documentary, and added video to the mix.
Right now, I am where I want to be; living my own life, trying to follow my talents, my inner voice, my heart and my intuition. Staying hungry, and foolish, as the Jobso said.
Can we play together? Push some boundaries? Create something interesting? Change the world, just a little bit? Tell me, please! “Everything you can imagine is real”, as Pablo P said. Don’t get scared if I sound too serious; my friends know I have other sides too, including the one which claims: “Don’t take life too seriously, no one gets out alive.” So, let’s play!
Warmest, Basil
Basil Rolandsen is a Norwegian documentary photographer and adviser, living and working in Indonesia and East Timor.