BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS, NORDIC SILENCES AND INNER DEPTH, WHERE EACH IMAGE BLURRS THE LINES BETWEEN REALITY AND DREAM. A PHOTOGRAPHIC ART THAT INTERPRETS NATURE, WITH THE SENSITIVITY OF AN ARTIST AND THE STRENGTH OF THOSE WHO KNOW HOW TO TRANSFORM EMOTION, REVEALING THE HIDDEN BEAUTY OF ANxiety AND THE POETRY OF MYSTERY.
Since 2009, Mats Andersson has published over a dozen books and received numerous awards. We met with him to discuss his journey into photography, how he came to define such a distinctive style, and what it takes to find your own creative voice. At first glance, it's not easy to tell whether a Mats Andersson print is a painting or a photograph. His landscape images blend the abstract with the surreal, simultaneously evoking restlessness, stillness, and a sense of the forbidden. His unmistakable style is recognized by its dark, rugged tone, deep blacks, evident grain, and frequent motion effects reminiscent of painting. This signature style has earned him numerous nature photography awards, the sale of his images worldwide, and the publication of no fewer than 13 books, a testament to his extraordinary dedication to his work. Mats Andersson received his first camera at the age of nine. He traveled frequently with his parents, visiting art museums around the world. He was enchanted by the works of the great masters such as Picasso, Chagall, Matisse and Monet, fascinated by how they managed to create something completely different from a simple representation of reality.
Many years later, in the late 1990s, he began exploring digital photography. Although the quality of the first cameras was poor, this technology played a fundamental role in his development as an artist. Being able to experiment and see immediate results allowed him to explore new forms of expression. But it took time before digital technology could truly compete with film. His first digital camera, a Nikon D200, arrived in 2006. From that moment, his photography changed direction and a style that truly belonged to him began to emerge.
“I'm inspired by photographers who do anything but traditional nature photography. I prefer to look at the work of artists like Michael Ackerman, Sally Mann, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Anders Petersen... authors who work in completely different genres.”
Mats also finds inspiration in painting: among his favourite artists are Munch, Picasso, Chagall and Matisse. “My 'painted' images came about by accident. I'd been in the woods for hours on a very dark winter's day, unable to find any inspiration. I had only a few photos on my film that I was happy with. So I started walking back to the car with the camera around my neck. I was bored and every now and then I'd press the shutter button without even raising the camera to my eye. Apparently, it was set to a long shutter speed, but I didn't notice. When I got to the car and started reviewing the images, to my surprise I found some that looked like real impressionist paintings. I looked at the shooting data and tried to replicate that effect.” In 2006, Mats visited Iceland for the first time, and it was a revelation. Struck by the beauty and drama of the landscapes, he decided that one day he would return, alone, to create his own images. It took nine years, but the photographs he took in Iceland in 2015 immediately attracted a lot of attention upon his return to Sweden. They were published in numerous magazines around the world. He returned to the land of fire and ice six more times to create the images collected in his award-winning books. Nature Diary And Mother Earth.
EXCLUSIVE WORKSHOPS Every year, Mats holds an exclusive workshop, preferably in Iceland, the Shetland Islands, or the Outer Hebrides. For small groups, it's a valuable opportunity to experience firsthand his approach to photography. "I always share my sources of inspiration and show participants the kind of photography that inspires me. And I emphasize what, for me, makes an interesting photograph: those that raise questions. I'm not interested in technique and I rarely talk about it.
What really matters to me is the impact an image can have. Do I immediately understand what it is about, or does it leave room for the imagination? The images that fascinate me most are the ones I can look at countless times, discovering something new each time.”
THE BEST BLACK AND WHITE NATURE PHOTO OF 2021 “The realization of Moonlight Requiem It's a moment I'll never forget. Not so much because he won the black and white category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2016, but because that image expresses exactly what I was feeling in that moment. I had a pair of pygmy owls that lived near my house—I live near a forest. I'd been following them for days, when one morning I found one on the ground, killed by a larger owl. I was shocked. Shortly after, I saw the other owl on a branch. It was bowing its head, closing its eyes… it truly seemed to be in mourning.
And that’s exactly what that photo says to me.”
