Tanne Willow was born...

I grew up in a small suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Surrounded by nature, I spent most of my time either running around in the forest or cooped up in front of some new creation I was working on. Since as long as I can remember, I have been creating little worlds.

I love working with my hands, using different materials to alter reality. As a child, I created worlds of all kinds. Small cities created with colored dough, made up of animal families in shoebox houses. I would turn my room into a glacier using my mother's sheets to form icebergs where my stuffed animals could rest from swimming on my bedroom floor. Outdoors I would build forts and homey hideouts out of anything I could get my hands on. 


This fascination with the fantastic has been mirrored in my drifting mind. Not that the world isn't beautiful enough as-is, but I've always felt it is often misunderstood, misinterpreted and underestimated by us humans - myself included. The quest for understanding more about this world has made my mind drift to places I find very precious. Whether it's as simple as noticing a streak of light dancing on a wall or as complicated as trying to understand the concept of time, I constantly have the need to return inwards to a place of fantasy and imagination where new ideas can take form. Born from a place of wonder and child play - I like to think my approach is a humble and curious one, filled with intuition and improvisation.

As a photographer, my work is driven by the same lust for evolving my view of the world (as well as other's). I still create my little worlds - sometimes by using props, sometimes just by shifting camera-angle. In order to convey messages at the same time as I get the chance to explore the new and unknown for myself. Every time I go on a new creative quest I find myself as much a student of the unknown as I'm a leader of creation. Photography constantly opens up new worlds of possibilities for my mind. It is like learning a new language - one that cannot be translated in words and therefore doesn't have the limitations of speech. A language that let's my mind flow freely.