“Nordic Girls aims to capture the culture, fashion and beauty of Scandinavia and neighbouring regions.”

London based photographer Curtis Blair is currently in the middle of a photography project that studies Nordic culture and will ultimately evolve into a photography book called ‘Nordic Girls‘. We are happy to show you an exclusive excerpt called “Aprilhimlen” from the upcoming book of the Swedish girls he shot in April between Stockholm and London. “Nordic Girls” aims to capture the culture, fashion and beauty of Scandinavia and neighbouring regions. It looks to confirm and dispel certain stereotypes of the respective nations in a playful way. From Icelandic girls freeing the nipple on Twitter to Swedish girls reclaiming their right to go unshaven, Nordic women appear to be at the forefront of the new wave of feminism and make this is a particularly exciting era to study their culture.

How the idea was born
Nordic Girls is inspired principally by my childhood, where I spent a lot of time visiting family in Helsinki; the Scandinavian girls I’ve dated during adulthood and the Nordic music I’ve listened to throughout. My ambitions to travel across Scandinavia and improve my Swedish aligned with my ever-growing interest in portraiture and resulted in the advent of Nordic Girls.

What do you want to capture in this series
With Nordic Girls I aim to capture the beauty, fashion and culture of the Nordic Countries. I want to confirm or dispel the various stereotypes associated with the respective nations in a playful way, and showcase the cultural quirks I’ve observed as an outsider to the wider world. In order to capture a more authentic and representative image of the modern day Nordic woman, I’m consciously casting some women who aren’t fashion models through friends and social media; I’m also asking all models to style themselves in a way that most reflects their own personality rather than the ideals of a typical fashion or lifestyle shoot.

What´s special about Nordic girls
Apart from the abundance of tallness, blonde hair and outrageous beauty; I see them as generally being strong-minded, liberal women with a lot of self-respect. Nordic women are arguably on the forefront of the new wave of feminism – from the increasing traction of the Feminist Initiative party in Sweden (and now Norway), to Icelandic women ‘freeing the nipple’ on Twitter to raise awareness for the campaign. This notion is also corroborated by prominent Nordic icons in the fashion world such as Arvida Byström, who has helped reclaim the female body by notably showing body hair and menstruation in her work. The above leads me to believe that this may be looked back on as one of the most exciting eras to have studied Nordic women and their culture. 

Why do you think people think in stereotypes?
I think stereotypes are simply a way for people to attempt to understand the nature of somebody they do not know. Instinctively this is for safety, but it’s obviously less relevant in an increasingly homogenised world. If not used distastefully to discriminate, I feel stereotypes can still be a positive thing as far as maintaining identity in such world and providing an untiring source of great humour. I think this Nordic Girls excerpt, Aprilhimlen, is certainly conclusive in dispelling the idea that all Swedes are blonde and very reserved; and, although I’ve not visited for over a decade, I doubt I’ll find drunk Finns riding polar bears and knife fighting when I head to Helsinki this Autumn.

www.curtisblair.co.uk
instagram.com/curtisblair

Title: ‘Aprilhimlen’
Photographer: Curtis Blair  – www.curtisblair.co.uk –  Instagram: @curtisblair
Models: Iris @ Stockholmsgruppen, Cecilia S @ Stockholmsgruppen, Lina, Linnéa V
Linnéa  @yourgirllinni
Lina  – @linalinnea91
Cecilia S at Stockholmsgruppen – @ceciliasundstrom
Iris at Stockholmsgruppen – @norasvenson