Haakon Brox (1982, Norway)
During Nordic Light International Festival of Photography in 2011 the “Coming Star” prize was awarded for the first time. Haakon Brox was the talent who emerged victorious, in the eyes of an international jury consisting of Gered Mankowitz (England), Deborah Turbeville (USA), Bruno Ehrs (Sweden), Frank Hesjedal (editor of www.foto.no) and Morten Krogvold (Nordic Light’s Artistic Director).
Haakon Brox won the prize, according to the jury’s appraisal, for his characteristically powerful artistic expression. The photographs he presented were part of an artistic portrait series he made as a college project in his first year at NKF (Norwegian School of Creative Studies). He is extremely grateful to the school and its headmaster Jørn Adde. “I really enjoyed the school, both professionally and socially,” says Haakon. “When I review my work from the first period at NKF, I can see that my development has been tremendous. This has a lot to do with the support I got from the school’s headmaster and all the fantastic lecturers we experienced.”
It was actually a coincidence that led Haakon to choose photography. When he was studying child care in Trondheim, he acted as assistant on an advertising film shoot. During the shoot he got to know advertising photographer Geir Mogen, and this led to a period working as photographic assistant. After two years as assistant, Haakon enrolled at the Norwegian School of Creative Studies in Trondheim. In the summer of 2011 he graduated after two years of photographic studies, and has now moved to Oslo to establish himself as a photographer.
Haakon says he intends to show some remarkable work during the festival. His exhibition is another artistic portrait series, but with a different use of light than the one he won the Coming Star prize with. One of the inspirations for this project is film directors, such as the Swedes Tomas Alfredson and Roy Andersson, as well as the American photographer Gregory Crewdson.
The photographs invite the viewer to create their own individual interpretation. Haakon has used plenty of time to find what he considers as the right surroundings for each picture so that the result stays as close to his original idea as possible. The exhibition will be accompanied by music composed by Audun Røstad especially for the occasion and dedicated to this photographic series.
This photographic star of the future hopes that within five years he will reside in the USA, homeland of his guiding light, Gregory Crewdson. “Hopefully, I will be doing stimulating work, maybe advertising photography. To be acclaimed as Coming Star, in addition to winning a bronze in the NFF National competition has been a real confidence booster and increased my enthusiasm”, Haakon says.
