Marthe Bleu

MARTHE BLEU
Photographer
City of residence, OSLO, NOR

INSTAGRAM

COL: Who are you and what do you do? 
MB: Im a girl from the north who moved to Oslo five years ago, I have been photographing for three of them and I mostly move around from job to job, and try to figure out how what I want to do with my life.

COL:  What characterize you work? How would you describe your personal style? 
MB: What I like to work with in terms of themes and style is forever changing with me as I change. But honesty always stays in centrum of my work.

COL:  How do your own experiences influence your work?
MB: In every way possible. From how I feel, from where I am geographically, the seasons, the people I hang with and the literature I read. It all plays a role.

COL:  What will you be showing at the uncontaminated festival?
MB: Im working with this amazing graphic designer called Sara Risvaag who is helping me out with some new ideas.
Im wanna mix photo and poetry in a way that is cool.

COL:  What do you want to communicate through your work? Is there a message - political or otherwise?
MB: There is always a thought behind every project, even if it is only to have fun. But thats the thing, you never really know how what you do will make a change or if it will at all. I took this picture of me having my period and people really liked it (and hated it) and we sold a lot of t-shirts with the picture on to young people and it kinda became a feminist statement. I never predicted that.
So sometimes the project you do just for your own need is the one that will affect people the most, not because you decided it but people did. Its very interesting.

COL:  Do artists of today have some kind of of social responsibility?
MB: I think we all hold that responsibility as humans, and living up that makes your art stronger.

COL:  What does uncontaminated mean for you? 
MB: The only bond I have had with uncontaminated so far is FALCK´s exhibition a few years ago which I really liked. Im very bad at going to galleries and checking out stuff.

U: What is the most important thing in your life?
MB: My freedom.

COL:  How do you feel right now?
MB: Good. A lot things are aligning up for me lately.

COL:  If you could change one thing in the world today, what would it be?
MB: That the whole world went vegan and started taking care of the nature.

COL:  What are the main reasons you are joining us for the festival this year?
MB: I was asked and concrete deadlines always does me good.

COL:  What is the most important drive for you to create and why?
MB: The rush of creating something which is good, which touches people and yourself.

COL:  Who or what do you value as a great inspiration for you creatively?
MB: Literature is definitely what inspires me most.

COL:  Can you elaborate on an important moment in your life where you experienced a big change, chose to make one or another event which altered your way of thinking or your approach to creativity ?
MB: I remember this one moment at school, I had just started and I knew nothing of photography or art. I had never hold a camera or gone to a gallery, it just seemed like something that other people did, that it required knowledge that I didn't have.
So far we had only had lectures at school about old painters, statues, academics, religious art and so on and it just didn't connect to me. But then our teacher was showing us pictures from the norwegian photographer Morten Andersen. It was
a picture of two japanese girls looking out a window from a view, in very contrasty black and white. And I really felt connection at that second, there was something I could relate to. I thought «this is cool, I wanna do this»
So I saw more and more work like this. and never had I realized that photography could be something so honest and real, something i could recognize myself in.

COL:  How does digital and social media affect or inspire your life and creations?
MB: I really hate social media but I can't get off instagram because I feel I will miss out on something, and I don't know how I would spread my work or contact people I want to shoot.
Mostly I don't like social media because it takes up to much space of people and things just lose their quality.
Internett is great in many ways, but what people mostly use it for is porn and facebook.

COL:  What do you define as art? 
MB: There is no definition, as long as it touches something in you.

COL:  What is your definition of artistic freedom?  
MB: Artistic freedom for me is the same as personal freedom.

COL:  Is there a difference for you between art and commercial/commissioned work? 
MB: The purpose is different for me. If I do something commercial it is usually because of money, also I have never been offered any commercial work that I wanted to take because it seemed fun.

COL: Do you struggle to find artistic freedom in the span between commissioned work and your personal needs to express yourself?
MB: I do very little commercial work, Im really not the person people come to when they need something like that. But if I do I usually try to be clear on how I like to work. Like I just shoot a wedding with film and the couple gave me most of the freedom, they were super chill, so when something like that happens I enjoy it a lot, because I still get to have my style even if the «event» is not mine.

COL:  What do you aspire to? In the near future? In life in general?
MB: I am really comfortable where I am now, so I don't aspire much these days.

COL:  What is a great example of a fashion art collaboration in your view?
MB: Suffo Moncloa and Jack Davidson does it so insane amazingly, check out there work at minititle.

COL:  Where do you think art and fashion is heading in our digital age?
MB: I really like some of the stuff I see around me. Youth is taking the power back by making their own stuff, not caring about the trends or buying the incredibly lame expensive labels. There are so many cool personalities around doing their thing, just having the guts to be different.