Exploring the complexity and sense of self through B&W photography

We asked Titika about the key to creating her mysterious black and white photographs

"My name is Titika Røtkjær; I am an artist from Copenhagen, Denmark. After studies in communication at Roskilde University, Denmark, I moved to Norway to study visual art, first at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, later in Bergen, where I finished my studies in visual art at Bergen Academy of Art and Design with a MA in Textile Art. I have no formal education in photography. My knowledge about photography and editing comes from continuous self-education.

Do you want to know about my style? Could I talk about expression instead? I never think about style... Telling stories from a poetic and personal perspective, in each image I work intensively on expression, mood, the atmosphere. Developing how my images appear is a process. I always aim to refine and clarify the expression. Sometimes I re-edit old images if I gain new knowledge that enables me to come closer to the expression I was trying to achieve.

The key to making my mysterious photographies...? In most of my images - made over the last four years - I have been exploring the complexity and sense of self with a special interest in the connection between inner and outer realities. Many of my images - but not all - are constructed digitally of several images (all, of course, shot by me).

My process typically starts with an interest or a curiosity to explore a theme or a complex of emotions. I shoot, write notes and read to gain more knowledge, and shoot again. Working with the images often leads me to construct a new one out of several others. I work experimentally, subjectively, and intuitively with the theme to let my pictures unfold. I don't have a clear vision of the end result in my mind's eye and then shoot the elements to construct it."

Head to Instagram to see more of the artist’s process and enjoy her B&W shots.