An Artist’s Insight with Sabina

Both on location and in the Stockholm Atelier, she has captured bestselling images, striking original photography and more considered niche taste pieces. We sat down to get a look behind the scenes and hear about her influences and adventures. We started off by talking about how she gets ideas. “I can be really inspired by mundane little details. Take a speck of dust, for example. I can be inspired by how the light hits it.” She’s a strong believer that creativity feeds inspiration, so working on different concepts every week suits her.

Destination photo shoots and subjects that misbehave

Sabina has travelled a lot with Desenio but her favourite destination was the Amalfi Coast. “It was just two photographers on a trip. Sometimes we shot together, but sometimes we went off on our own. It reminded me of when I was a teenager and I drove around in my car in the countryside and just pulled over at the side of the road because I saw something beautiful.” As well as taking photos on location, Sabina creates thoughtfully styled sets, takes portraits and even takes photos of animals sometimes, such as in Three Riders. “Working with animals is hard, they never look where you want them to.” But there’s another kind of subject that can be difficult to work with: “Objects can also misbehave, like a flower can flop in the wrong direction so you have to fix it with a piece of wire.”

Swedish minimalism and photography with interesting light

How does she describe her style? Melancholy, dramatic and stilren. Sabina is referring to the Swedish concept that would be directly translated as ‘pure style’ but could also be said to be ‘clean-cut’ or ‘minimalist’. She elaborates on the concept of drama, by which she means that there must be something interesting happening with the light. “It just has to hit right,” she says.

A few favourite art prints

So, what’s her favourite piece that she has made for Desenio? There are a few, among them Shifting Grounds Print. “It’s not photography exactly, but I like the balance and the colours, and I love crafty things and doing things with my hands.” Then there’s Car with Lemons which she likes because it has resonated with so many of our customers, and recently, she enjoyed making Quiet Confidence. “I was by myself in the studio and had fun figuring out what kind of lighting works and where it really sings with the object.” And how does a typical day in the Stockholm Atelier look? “I do a lot of stuff in a day: usually I am in the photo studio in the morning, moving things around until they feel right and then the afternoon can be a bit of retouching.” Sometimes she heads out around town looking for props or looks for inspiration online. “A day in the Stockholm Atelier is always fun, never boring!”