Photographers for inspiration
Suggestions for other photograhpers to add? Don´t hesitate to comment!
Some of these links are broken. I am sorry, I will fix it very soon.

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Diane Arbus
Accepting and warm view into the world of the different ones

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Miguel Rio Branco
Master of color

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David Lachapelle

Popculture with a critical selfview

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Mario Giacomelli
Graphic estetics

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Salvador DalíSurrealism at its best
(Didn´t find a good example link here, tell me if you do)
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W Eugene Smith
Master of analogue manipulation

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Jose ortiz Echagüe
A visit to the past

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Catala Roca
Light, perfectionism and realism

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Not a pretty girl

An other song...
with very simple lyrics...but still I adore it.
~ by the beloved Ani Difranco.

I am not a pretty girl
that is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
and I don't need to be rescued
so put me down punk
maybe you'd prefer a maiden fair
isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere

I am not an angry girl
but it seems like I've got everyone fooled
every time I say something they find hard to hear
they chalk it up to my anger
and never to their own fear
and imagine you're a girl
just trying to finally come clean
knowing full well they'd prefer you
were dirty and smiling

and I am sorry
I am not a maiden fair
and I am not a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere

and what if there are no damsels in distress
what if I knew that and I called your bluff?
don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down
whether or not you ever show up

I am not a pretty girl
I don't want to be a pretty girl
no I want to be more than a pretty girl

~ Ani DiFranco

Download this song

Download other songs by Ani DiFranco

"Lengsel når stillheten kommer"
(The longing that comes with silence)
Comments about the photos are welcome
~ Aasa

et sammenflettet, hardt nøste
så mange timer
alene
men minnet om perlende latter
denne lille
som sovnet inn mens hun sang
bløte, redde, sterke, ømme hender
mor





















"Mother"
Comments about the photos (or lyrics) are welcome
~ Aasa

Midnight landscape

~ by Aasa Bergem

Twin Peaks quote:

COOPER
Roger, I know the move I'm supposed to make. And I
know the board.
HARDY
So ...
COOPER
I've done a lot of thinking. And I've started to focus out
beyond the end of the board. On a bigger game.
HARDY
What 'game'?

COOPER
The sound wind makes through the pines. The sentience
of animals. The last thought of a homeless man before he
takes a night's sleep. What we fear in the dark. And
what's beyond the dark.
HARDY
What the hell are you talking about?
COOPER
I'm talking about seeing beyond fear, Roger. About
looking at the world with love.
HARDY
Cooper, you're liable to be extradited for murder and
drug trafficking -
COOPER
That's something I can't control

You
Your voice comes through the cellphone
there is almost no coverage
the metallic sound of your voice
broken up into little parts
"It doesnt carry through" - I shout into the phone
"I cannot hear you!
I cannot hear you!"

Edith Piaf

NON, JE NE REGRETTE RIEN
Paroles: Michel Vaucaire, musique: Charles Dumont, enr. 10 novembre 1960

Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait, ni le mal
Tout ça m'est bien égal
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
C'est payé, balayé, oublié
Je me fous du passé

Avec mes souvenirs
J'ai allumé le feu
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux
Balayés mes amours
Avec leurs trémolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repars à zéro

Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait, ni le mal
Tout ça m'est bien égal
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie
Car mes joies
Aujourd'hui
Ça commence avec toi...

The Political Compass Test
I think this test is quite good.
I have posted it before here in my blog, so this is for new readers.
I also re-took the test to see if I had changed in some views, but it looked pretty much the same.

My score:

Now you can all be scared of me, O frightening lefty as I am, he he!
I see that I am on Ghandi, Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandelas "team".
Must say I am proud to be, just one reason being that Ghandi is really my hero!

xxx Aasa

Here is a "map" of some politically active people, to make it easier to compare your scores:Take "The Political Compass Test"

En liten vise

av Inger Hagerup

Så er min hånd blitt tom.
Den holdt bestandig nesten om
de ting jeg ville verne.
Jeg våget aldri gripe til.
Når er det vel en sikkert vil
det som en vil så gjerne?

Igjen, igjen et nederlag
Se, våren er så grønn i dag,
og så skal jeg gå fra deg?
Men jeg vil huske fra jeg gikk
det mørke blaffet i ditt blikk
og det du ikke sa meg.

Igjen en vår med blomst og trær
kastanjens tyste stjernehær
og bøkens røde flamme,
og hjertet mitt som slår og slår,
fordi det ikke helt forstår-
nei det kan bli det samme.

Mitt dumme hjerte tøver sånn.
Se her- du får min tomme
hånd.
Så altfor, altfor lite.
Men hvem som kom, og hvem
som gikk.
og hvem som tok og hvem
som fikk,
det får vi aldri vite


Read more wonderful poetry

A few words to our time

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I hate....
-the ugliness of our time
-fashion and brainwashing for the masses
-popular music with texts just as creative as a radiator-manual
-the ground filled with asphalt not made for bare feet to walk on.
-TV - that makes our minds stupid - that helps us not think for ourselves. That tells us how to behave, what to wear and which opinions to have. How it has made us passive and taken away our storytelling.
-popular magazines - telling us we are not good enough and how we should look and be
-our relationship to animals, that they are bought and sold as things.
-the money rule society with effectiveness and time-saving solutions
-how we are made to passive slaves of capitalism, without even knowing it. How we all run around the treadmill to make the wheel of money go around
-the false needs our society creates, and our unability to see through it
-the cold ugly buildings made of steel and glass
-that nature is trimmed and controlled and far away from our daily lives
-how controlled we are, and how we are registered and supervised in every little shitty thing
-our lack of freedom, our self-chosen prisons and our tendency to think as a group
-the way this society has turned out

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I love....
-the beauty on those things that feels real
-things made with care, originality and personality
-creative music that either boils your blood with its rhythm or holds something meaningful
-grass between my toes
-telling stories, singing and sharing with other people
-people who dare to be themselves, even though they are not "how society tells us to be"
-it when people have respect for life and treat animals accordingly
-it when people don´t think about time, when they give and receive naturally and create something without thought of personal gain
-it when people think individualisticly and dare to question things
-feelings and needs that are spoken with an honest voice
-homes with personality, that are made with care
-nature that is allowed to grow wild and free
-it when people have genuine freedom and responsibility inside themselves. And when they care enough to fight for something they believe in
-to think about those who care for more than just themselves. And that tries, no matter how small the deed, to make a difference in a good way.

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Just a little post....

...to the beauty of the libélula (dragonfly)

New Facbook page

I have made a Facebook page for my photos
Check it out and add yourself as a fan if you like it
Then you will also get a discount if you buy something from me
:-)
~ Aasa

Amazing!

Join!

New group on Facebook
Join it now and end war forever!
;-)

To everybody with....

....a low attention span, a fascination for obscure information and a good taste in books
Note to self:
"Must read":

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Quoting time

"True friends stab you in the front."

"No parachute? Wow! This is so cool!"

"Å våge er å miste forfestet et kort sekund. Å ikke våge er å miste livet"

"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly."

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."

"Beauty in things exist in the mind which contemplates them."

"Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"There is no road to happiness, happiness is the road"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."

"In order to be brave you must first start by being afraid
for true courage lies in the overcoming of fear
not in its absence"

This is from a very good book, called "The prophet" By Khalil gibran.
One of the reasons I really enjoy it, is that I took a liking to it already as a little child and I made my mother read it to me as a goodnight story. My favourte chapter was this one:
xxx
Aasa

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

~ Kahlil Gibran

All the chapters
Reason and Passion
Love
Self-Knowledge
Giving
Friendship

Good and Evil
Freedom

New address from 27.12.08

Åsa Bergem
Sverdrupsgate 9 A
0559 Oslo
Norway

(That is NO hint at all from me of course
about X-mas gifts or other forms of bribery. ha, ha ;-)

List nr 13: Things I loved as a kid

After having worked with children a lot, you start to think about some things
Like the development of personality
The funny thing is that you see their differences and personalities sooo early. Its truly fascinating
And I see that the things I loved to do as a kid, reflects who I am still today.
I was talking to my sweet grandmother here the other day and she told me stories from when I was a kid. She said that these were a few of the things I loved to do:

1.Go up to a big mudpond close to the house and jump all around in it (especially those time they put on my shiny, white, newly washed overall)

2.Sing, sing and sing. After she had put me to bed and gone downstairs I would always get up and hold on to my bed while singing to myself until I collapsed in my bed and fell asleep

3.Invent stories. And it seems I was very good at it as well. I have a friend of mine who still believes that I had tree blue cats. She claims that she even saw them (this is what makes me believe I was a real badass at telling the stories, haha), but that they were blown away by the wind, she claims, and that's how I lost them.

4.Dares. I could for some reason never say no to a dare. I ate dangerous stuff just because somebody said that I wouldn't do it. And got in trouble with the kindergarten, doing stuff people told me I wouldn't dare to do. Ha ha! Nobody tells me that I cannot do something!!!!

5.Doing stuff that seemed risky. Me and my best friend had a favorite hobby: Climbing roofs and jumping from the next roof to the other.
To get to the first "Starters roof" at my house, we had tree options.
-Either to climb a pretty easy and safe way (which we never chose, as it was boring)

-Or go through the neighbor's gardens (where there lived a woman who always used to scream at us, if she saw us) which I did now and then, cause it was a little fun,

-Or climb a plank we called "the rotten one" (which looked like it would collapse any day soon and which also was very hard to climb and which we were advised never to climb again after a neighbor saw us doing it), Of course I chose this one I most of the time, haha!

6.Draw. I have been drawing like my life depended on it ever since I was a tiny little bugger. My mother had to buy new sheets og paper all the time cause I was drawing so quickly.

I used to draw my own comics that often had either a comment on political, romantic or religious issues (yes, we were quite occupied with politics even though we didnt get much of it), I find them quite satirical and funny when I read them now. (Looking at this drawing - what do you think he is saying?)

Then in 7 grade there was this girl that drew very slowly and precise. This influenced me a lot, since I thought it was so pretty, and I had a looong period where I made the most awfully boring drawings. I later found back to my more "rough, and quick" style, which I still prefer.

7:Climb. All kinds of stuff. Trees, buildings, roofs. (See point 5)
The tree on the picture is one of my fav trees in the world. (I think I am secretly in love with him.) He is a grand old oak - they are my favourite, because they are so gnarly, twisted, powerful and nice.

8.Talk and laugh. I seemed to be an extremely outgoing kid. And also almost happy all the time. My teacher called me our class butterfly, twirling from person to person laughing and talking and smiling.
I had an extreme downperiode from 13 to 19, being very introverted and shy. (Mostly because of some really bad experiences) But now I feel I am back to my true nature.

9.Explore. Every little mudpond was a little adventure full of magical worlds. I still think they are and I never get tired of exploring :)

10:Cuddle and hugs. Will never get tired of that. I have never met anybody yet that has "outcuddled me". I can cuddle for days straight. Ha ha!