Maria-Thérèse Sommar, fotograf, frilansskribent och författare. Ej körkortsfoto!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Translated interview


original text here: http://st.nu/noje/1.1114000


Maria-Thérèse's images in Hollywood thriller

Sundsvall (ST) She received an e-mail at one thirty in the morning. [A set decorator] wanted to buy eleven photographs from Maria-Thérèse Andersson to be used in Gossip Girl actress Leighton Meester's upcoming movie The Roommate, which is currently under production.

Facts
Name: Maria-Thérèse Andersson
Location: Härnösand, grew up in Helgum, Sollefteå.
Occupation: Owns her own company, afiori, which works with images, collages and texts.
Education: Self-taught photographer, Master's Degree in philosophy, has studied art history, visual literacy and languages, among other subjects, at Mid Sweden University.


- I have no idea how my images will be used in the movie but I'm very excited to see where they'll be, says Maria-Thérèse Andersson, photographer, creator of images and writer in Härnösand. It all happened very quickly. In February, Maria-Thérèse Andersson started her company afiori and sells her own images, collages and notebooks with mixed paper in a webshop. She also writes and creates various exhibitions where she integrates text and images. Her current exhibition Flowers is shown at Technichus, Härnösand.

Two weeks ago she received an e-mail in the middle of the night from [a set decorator] who among other things has worked on the horror movie The Ring. She wanted to buy eleven images for a movie.

- I was quite surprised but assumed it was a small production. I wrote and said it would be perfectly fine to use my images as long as it wasn't for anything racist or pornographic. Then I googled a bit and realised it was a huge production with one of my favourite actresses, Leighton Meester from Gossip Girl, Maria-Thérèse Andersson says.

The movie in question turned out to be The Roommate, a film where Gossip Girl actress Leighton Meester plays one of the main characters. Time was of the essence. The movie is already being filmed and premiers in 2010. Sony Pictures sent a contract and immediately transferred the money and requested that the images be sent by express post.

- The contract states that they are allowed to use my images in the film ”in perpetuity and throughout the universe”, Maria-Thérèse Andersson says.

She will not be receiving any big Hollywood money. They did not buy the originals. - It's the usual price. It added upp to about $130 but it's a great way for my images to be seen. I hope they will want to use more of my images some other time or that I will get hired to photograph according to a specific style, she says hopefully.

The Roommate is about an art student and her friend who becomes slightly mad and bipolar. And obsessed by her friend. The images which will be used somewhere in the thriller are rather mysterious.

Started at the age of eleven

Maria-Thérèse Andersson started taking photographs at the young age of eleven, in school.
- I had a teacher who was interested in photography and my dad helped me out. Then I got my own analogue lab at home. Since then, I have continued to take photographs and work with images, Maria-Thérèse Andersson says.

After her education she has, among other things, worked as a teacher. But she grew tired of constantly losing her job because she was the last employed.

[...]

- I am never going to work in a school again. I'm going to work with photography, collages and writing; everything that I truly love and am passionate about. And I don't want anyone to control me, Maria-Thérèse Andersson says.

She travels quite a bit. She has, for instance, been to Rome 14 times, enticed by the architecture. She also photographs ordinary environments but mostly to remember where she has been and to put them in her travel journals in which she writes constantly.

When she creates her art she often prints photographs, paints on them and scans them back into the computer. She sometimes adds text and ”dirt” to achieve the right emotion in the picture. At the moment she is in the middle of an ”image phase”. She also has a few manuscripts for novels waiting to be published – possibly self-published.

Maria-Thérèse Andersson is looking forward to seeing The Roommate.
- I love cinema. One of my favourite films is Sunset Boulevard from 1950. I love action such as Armageddon with loads of explosions and a dirty Bruce Willis running about. Movies are so relaxing, she says with a laugh.

Sundsvalls Tidning 11 June 2009
by Lasse Hallberg
photographer: Linus Wallin
translated by Maria-Thérèse Andersson
Original text:
http://st.nu/noje/1.1114000
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Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Buttons! Knappar!

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I made some buttons in case you want to link to my site! You wanna? :) If you do, please click here and save the one you want! ..
Jag har gjort några knappar om ni vill länka till min sida! Vill du? :) I så fall, klicka här och spara den du vill ha!

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