arnfinnpix

A rainy evening on Amager Strand in Copenhagen. The plan was to spend that evening with a few beers in the sand dunes. And a bath or two. But reality disagreed.

Instead I put the weather sealed lens on the weather sealed body, and went for a walk. Got wet. And got some great shots I'm rather satisfied with.

It's all rather bittersweet, though. I've spent a lot of time in Copenhagen for the last couple of years. Work stuff. The last trips I've stayed out at Amager Strand, and have rather fallen in love with the area.

Now that work stuff is over, though. This was my last evening in the city. And it might be years until I return. So perhaps it was fitting that it would be dark, grey, gloomy and sad.

But it is also fitting in a more photographical sense. The gloom and the rain adds an element to these pictures that brings them even more in line with the psychogeographical spirit that is at the heart of my photography.

It is an ongoing search, not for the spirit of place as such, but for a combination of elements that transgress themselves. The way four OK musicians can get together and suddenly be a great band.

Like that. Only in photos. And probably not that great. But still ... not just the sum of the parts. Something ... more.

And the gloom, the sadness and the solitude are all things that attracted me to Amager Strand in the first place. Like a summer resort in autumn. Just four stops on the metro away from the middle of Copenhagen.

And so, on that last day, my bittersweet mood came together with the essence of a place I have come to love. And created something that is personal, but that I hope goes beyond the personal. That's really not for me to say, though.

I'm just the man with the camera.

*

All pictures © Arnfinn Pettersen