POLITIKEN Friday, 6 February 2015

Interview: Janne Klerk

Told to Malene Jensen

Along the Coast

Denmark’s coasts are more than large waves breaking on beaches. They are also the story of fishery, bridges, ferries, and fjords. The photographer Janne Klerk worked her way along the 7,500 kilometers of coastal areas. Here she talks about four of the photographs that appear in the exhibition The Coasts of , which opens in July at .

Hammershus “It was an unbelievable day. Farther inland you could hardly see your hand in front of your face.

Sea fog rolled in over the dense forest, which grows right down to the edge of the water, and the hard, immutable cliff landscape that never alters in the way sandy coasts do.

I have visited Hammershus several times at different seasons, because the place is completely magical.

It is incredibly luring, even if you do not know its history, because the landscape in itself is so dramatic. And while a book has the same words if you reread it, with the camera you get a new story every time.

That is why I often return to the same place.

The subject alters as well, in step with the changing seasons and varying weather conditions. The coast as subject fascinates me. I can visit a place and think that it looks incredibly dull. So I don’t take a picture.

The next day I come back, because the place is on the way to something else, and it suddenly becomes fantastic.

The element of surprise can’t be mistaken when one progresses along the 7,500- kilometer-long expanse of Danish coastline.

In reality what it is about is that suddenly there is an experience in it for me.

A feeling, a mood, or a surprise that makes me exclaim Wow! when I can sense that a good subject is about to reveal itself. “

Kalvebod Brygge “When one thinks about ‘coast,’ one thinks of the edge where water leaves off and beach begins. But the coast is other than waves of different sizes beating against the dunes.

The coastal landscape in itself is extremely varied, and when one begins to deal with ports, fishery, ferries, and bridges, the pictorial wealth of variety merely becomes even greater.

But ferries, bridges, fishery, and ports, including the port of , are also part of the history of the Danish coast. However, many years have now passed since large freight ships sailed under the bridges Langebro and Knippelsbro, and coal lay in huge piles at Island’s Brygge’s port. Today they are only memories, there is not very much port remaining at Kalvebod Brygge, for example. And all the way from Sluseholmen to Tuborg port endless exclusive residential buildings and office domiciles reign as the mighty representatives of transition.

It is the infringing transformation that I want to show in my photograph. That day there was a very special big-city light, a glaring light, and a random girl biking along the quay.

Along the Coast They are also building in the ports in smaller cities. Everyone wants to be near the water. And that is easy to understand. The water lures us.”

The Port of Grenå “I didn’t know there was such a place: the country’s fishery cemetery, with scrapped boats. Many small cutters end up here at Grenå Shipbreaker’s Yard. Their former captains have earned a lot by getting rid of their boats and selling their fishing quotas to trawl fishery.

This is the last little remaining piece of a ship before it has been completely cut up. At first I was completely gripped by the sight of the rust-red mountains of metal, and it seemed to me to be like walking around and photographing a random of old iron in colossal mounds. But then I became aware that this is also the actual destruction of an era. A symbol of a time and a trade that is scarcely to be found any more.

You could be saddened thinking about this course of events.

But in Sæby, where there formerly was a large fishing port, I met one of the fishermen who had sold both cutter and quota. He had bought a pleasure yacht in Germany, and he was in the process of getting it into the water when I came to the city. He stood on the quay with his entire family and launched the long boat, equipped with whisky bar and the works. I had believed that the fishermen must be sorry to have lost their livelihood. Because what were they to do with their lives now, when they are used to being out on the water? But in fact there is also a new life in it for them. Most of the fishermen have a good nest egg from the sale of their cutters, and now they can still get out on the water. In a pleasure yacht into the bargain.”

Picture text: “It seemed to me to be like walking around and photographing a random sculpture of old iron in colossal mounds. But then I became aware that this is also the actual destruction of an era.” Janne Klerk, photographer

Korevle at Sejerøbugten “First of all, I really like seeing cows in this way. They thrive in many places along the coasts. This one is a nature restoration project in Western Zealand. But when I see the picture as subject I feel as though I am transported to a far-off place. It is completely dreamlike to me. It is almost exotic to see these cows wading around. It resembles something to be found really a long way away. But the place is here, at our feet. Ready for us to walk out into, and that is the best thing about it.

Usually I take a lot of time to find the right motif and the right composition for my photographs. But it was raining, and I considered getting into my car and leaving right away. I decided that I should at least have one picture to take home with me. And so I stood there and suddenly saw the cows shambling across the meadow.

The funny thing is that I am often coupled with the painters of the Danish golden age, because many of my subjects have a tranquility that is also found in their works.

The truth is that I am not particularly knowledgeable about the golden age painters. But basically, I have always had a slow way of working. I like to walk around in the areas that interest me before I decide on a particular view. But that didn’t happen on the day of the littoral meadow with the cows.” [email protected]

The Coasts of Denmark. Exhibition with photographs by Janne Klerk. Sophienholm. 11 July – 13 September 2015. www.sophienholm.dk