“Looking back at the year” sounds like a very visual process, but for me it mainly consists of texts, bullet points and abstract reflection over how the last 12 months of my life have unfolded. Yet, a photographer at heart, I do love visuals and aesthetics, so here is my attempt at bringing flying colours to the yearly review – my 2017 in photos.
(PS: As part of the annual review process, I’ve also listed my top 10 books from 2017, my 10 best purchases, and the 10 best new habits and life hacks I adopted last year. Enjoy!)
2017 Visualised – The Year in Photos
1) Hong Kong Hustle & Bustle
Shot on a trip to Asia in January 2017. This photo to me shows the duality of big city life – beautiful in one sense, terribly chaotic, polluted and traffic congested in another.
2) Hong Kong Selfie Girl
I have no idea who this girl is, but she does a great job of personifying the selfie succumbing millennial.
3) Into the wild on the Mekong River in Vietnam
This gives me a Heart of Darkness-ian feeeling. Luckily, our boat river trip presented way fewer bizarre events than Charles Marlow & co’s river tour…
4) Strongwoman in Vietnam
Another gem from the Vietnam trip. This one is taken in the Mui Ne fairy stream, where people use the river stream as a walkway.
5) BAM for freedom!
Taken in Bergen, Norway on the early morning of May 17th, our constitution day. This one celebratory cannon blast is the only war-like thing we do on our constitution – the rest of the day, we watch children’s parades, not military ones.
6) Summer at Harvard Yard
A USA trip took place in June to celebrate my second cousin’s wedding, and a pitstop in Boston and Cambridge was due. New England is fantastic – it’s essentially New York minus the collective cortisol that NY runs on, plus a good dash of intellectuals drinking coffee sprinkled around.
7) White House police line
Donald crosses the proverbial line all the time, but don’t you dare to cross the yellow police line outside his house, dear tourist.
8) Venezian sunset
July gave me the opportunity to interrail from Italy into parts of eastern Europe. Venice was a stop on the tour, mostly to try to take exactly this photo. Waited the whole day for the sunset and the boats to align, and it was all totally worth it!
9) Coming of age
This is from my favourite museum – Zagreb’s Museum of Broken Relationships, showcasing ordinary folks’ heartbreak stories and associated items that people have sent in. This man, however, is just taking a breathing pause in front of an old toy car. Coming of age indeed.
10) Cycling trivialities
Nothing else than putting the world championships in my back yard could have made me remotely interested in professional cycling. I still don’t care about the sport, but what was effectively a week-long city celebration at the UCI World Championships in Bergen was a lot of fun!
11) Leaving Bergen behind
I’m moving from the west coast of Norway as 2018 comes knocking – this final photo from my Bergen neighbourhood is in honour of five great years in the rainy city.
12) High flying
Drones are so much fun. I’m ending the year in the air with my DJI Spark! (It’s a video, click on it.)
Thank you for watching! More visual snacks is coming to my instagram profile throughout 2018. Stay tuned!
Also published on Medium.