The talent commits

At just 16 years old Heinz Ehlers went abroad to see how far his hockey skills would take him. Shaped by the hardness of his father and the skating rink in Aalborg he distinguished himself throughout his career as one of the greatest players of his generation. Today he is the coach of the Danish national ice hockey team, which for the first time in history has qualified for the Olympics - and the father of two of the country’s most talented ice hockey players.

For: Euroman

AD: Thomas Bredesen at Twentyten

Words: Emil Foget

Editors: Kristoffer Dahy Ernst & Anders Hjort

“With two hands almost in the air, Morten Messerschmidt runs up on stage in Herning Congress Center, where 825 delegates have just elected him as the new chairman of Dansk Folkeparti with 499 votes.

»Morten, Morten, Morten,« the audience sings and gives the 41-year-old Messerschmidt a standing ovation.

Although the mood at the moment is ecstatic, make no mistake. The election is the culmination of a presidential showdown marked by violent personal intrigues, where even more profiles have decidedly threatened to leave the party if Morten Messerschmidt were to be elected as the new chairman.”
Client: Information

Words: Martin Bahn

Photo editor: Sigrid Nygaard

“It is hard to imagine when standing here in the cold looking up the metal stairs, silos and conveyor belts. When the 50’s suddenly rolls by on a freight bicycle in neon yellow boiler suit and soot under the eyes. When chalk dust and steam are dancing in the low sun. But right here in the eastern part of Aalborg they emit four percent of Denmark’s total CO2 emission. As much as 200.000 average Danes. 2,3 million tonnes per year. like all of Burkina Faso, where, after all, 21 million people live. 

The managing director himself comes down and picks up the photographer and me at the reception. Welcome and here you go, here is a helmet and reflective vest, then into a minibus and on a guided tour. Sunshine and a light drizzle at the same time. Well look, a really big pile of sand!

The technique has been known since Antiquity. Limestone + sand + crazy high heat = cement. Throw stone and gravel in the cement and you get concrete. Put steel in the concrete and you get armored concrete. And then you can build the modern world.

Today eight percent of the global CO2 emission comes from cement production - three times as much as the air traffic of the world. In three years, from 2011 to 2013 China used more cement than the USA throughout the 20th century.”

Online here

For: Weekendavisen

Words: Christian Bennike 

Photo editor: Mie Brinkmann

Layout: Liv Ajse

In almost ten years Jeanette Varberg has become a form of rockstar in a field that doesn’t really smell like rock n’ roll - the history of Denmark all the way back to the stone age. Her books are bestsellers. The latest, Urtid, was published in October 2021 and by christmastime the second print was gone. Her lectures are sold out everywhere with a packed audience and people queuing to get their books signed and talk about archeology. Jeanette Varberg has made it her special method to find the parts of our shared past that is not all about years and faceless events, but touches the human experience. She looks for other ways through history than most of us met in school. The one that makes up the past in kings and wars. Instead Jeanette Varberg looks at the women’s role in past societies, on minorities and investigates what phenomena like climate and pandemics has entailed for the world’s development. Contrary to most other historians she employs drama, fiction and what-if-theories to make the story more catchy for the modern audience.

Client: Zetland

Words: Marie Carsten Pedersen

AD: Mikkel Bøgild Jacobsen

It may not look how we expect a farm to look, but vertical farms like this one near Copenhagen, Denmark are supplying more and more greens to city dwellers, while using minimal land and no pesticides. Grab your boots – or rather, your white coat – and take a look around. About thirty minutes from Copenhagen stands a cavernous warehouse bathed in an otherworldly purple light. The shelves are stacked ten metres high, pumped with water and nutrients – and all filled with crisp baby salads. Nordic Harvest is a Danish startup on a mission to upend traditional agriculture through vertical farming, a technique that promises to reduce pollution, eliminate water waste, and even produce better crops. Founder Anders Riemann, a former shipping analyst who became disenchanted with his 9-5 job, says his ultimate goal is to shrink the footprint of the veggies we eat – both in terms of land use and their impact on the environment.

Online here

Client: 5 Media

Words: Elizabeth Anne Brown

AD: Marta Julia Johansen

Portfolio feature on the French Fisheye Magazine site here

Nikolaj Jacobsen Coach for the danish national handball team on the cover of Euroman.

Client: Euroman

Words: Jonas Langvad

Art Direction: Thomas Bredesen at Twentyten Studio

Styling: Kenneth Pihl Nissen

Retouch: Anders Bach Petersen

Editor in chief: Kristoffer Dahy Ernst

“Social Vanilla is a Danish startup working to make the vanilla industry fairer and more sustainable. It works directly with cooperatives of vanilla farmers in Uganda, and with the help of local NGOs such as Forests of the World and JESE, supports farmers with training, organisational support and technical advice. In this way Social Vanilla is able to source high quality vanilla, connect African smallholders with the international market and ensure the highest price for farmers.”

Online here

Client: 5Media

Art direction: Marta Julia Johansen

Words: Daiana Contini

Photographer Spotlight on Booooooom here

Reportage from the Social-democratic conference about Denmarks future. “It was probably such a day one should have jumped into the suit jacket, I realised when we arrived at the congress center placed between the local water park and a Covid-19-test-facility. Even Mathias Tesfaye is in a suit. Ladies in heels. The top of the Danish political pyramid is gathered at a conference on behalf of the prime minister. The head economic adviser is discussing something with Rane Willerslev. Isnt that the guy from Cepos over by the baskets with croissants? And the guy from Novo by the pile of fruit? Benny Engelbrecht is running around and fistbumping between the round tables. Søren Pape and Ulrik Wilbek know each other - it’s clear to see. And the handshake is not dead, I might add.”

Client: Weekendavisen
Words: Christian Bennike
Photo editor: Peter Helles Eriksen
Layout: Andreas Peretti & Liv Ajse