I started working with the images in my series The Chosen Ones in 2002, completing it in 2015. Originally, I was driven by the idea to take pictures of individuals who don’t even have any understanding of being depicted. And by the question if the images could still be perceived as portraits lacking one of the cornerstones of portrait photography – agreement between the photographer and the subject as manifested through direct eye contact with the camera. After some time, I started working with animals in the dairy industry – cows, calves and a bulls. I moved my large format camera and my studio lighting to the places where they spend most of their lives, being part of a system that promises in its advertisement that there is “always summer and they’re always more than willing to give their milk to us humans,” as Camilla Flodin writes in her text “In the eyes of the other” that accompanies the book The Chosen Ones published in 2016.
