TITLE: Duke

AUTHOR: Nick Svartengren (Sweden)

After way too many years of not getting the concept of life and living right I traded my camcorder for a digital camera in 2012, went to Africa and discovered I was meant to be a photographer. Since then, I´ve somehow managed to hang on to the art of photography as to a life line showing me the way forward.
The following years I tried and studied every possible style of photography. I went from finding people's portraits intimidating to fully embracing it. Today I´m proud to call myself a portrait photographer.
Out of work at the beginning of 2019 I for the first time in my life, at the age of 60, started to apply for jobs as a freelancer. I knew I was a decent photographer, but I had no idea whether I would do well for commercial work. I was self-taught and didn´t have any real reference points to gauge my skills against. To my happy surprise I got signed by a couple of agencies for corporate portraits, sports portraits and animal photography. With a full job calendar for 8-9 months a year this has given me the time and opportunity to focus on my art and personal projects.
To pursue a new career in search of recognition at my age means having to prioritize and to do so quite heavily. I simply do not have the time to go with every idea I get if I´m to stand any chance of fulfilling the ultimate dream of recognition. Now, since focus is not a bad thing for an artist I´ve come to embrace it and truly enjoy the process of getting better and better at what I do.