Our photoshoot day, last Wednesday, had a grey start but it cleared and the sun came out in the afternoon. Michael and I picked up the gorgeous model Emma Ross – Em for short – at her hotel in Oslo, before we drove to Bøler suburb and the church. Em flew in from Manchester in the United Kingdom the day before and we were excited to meet her. Bøler Kirke is a community church by HBA Arkitekter completed in 2011. See more photos here:  www.bygg.no. Photographer Eivind Røhne came as we were unpacking the car and meet the parish priest Dag Auli. We were given not only one room for lunch and our luggage but also a separate one for makeup with even larger windows towards the forest. We were given access to every part of the church, except for the Church Hall during the funeral at midday and given a tour of the church. Eivind and I did go all 121 steps to the top of the Bell Tower and had a lovely view of the nearby lake Østensjøvannet, but the platform at the top was tiny and the long drop to the ground made us both dizzy. The makeup & hair artist Sissel Fylling with her assistant Nora arrived and were introduced to Em. Yes, she needed a haircut (read: as we have come to expect) and we did not need to convince Em to accept. While Sissel and Nora set to work on Em’s hair and then makeup, I prepared the rail with the clothes and went on another tour with Eivind & Michael to locate locations. There were 3 backdrops we immediately wanted: The entrance area to the Church hall with its light concrete walls, the rusty cor-ten wall panel and the chapel courtyard. Michael has taken all these wonderful photos. Above is the entrance area and you see Sissel and me at work, while Em is checking out the biblical text written about the entrance to the Church Hall. She is wearing 1 of the 7 new designs, a long cardigan made in the lovely Di Gilpin’s Lalland Lambswool yarn with a unique twist.

Jewellery designer Kaja Gjedebo who lives at Bøler, came on her bicycle with a large selection for me to choose from. Yes, I did pick some of her new statement pieces and some old favourites. Kaja knows this community church well and could tell us about some of the events that take place here. It is one of the few churches with a licence to serve alcohol in connection with the concerts and other events organised at the church. Above you see Em covered in a felted wooly blanket (see Røros Tweed) to keep warm, as Eivind is checking the light and his flash. Yes, we have several of those blankets. Under she is wearing 1 of 3 designs that needed new photos: Autumn Symphony knitted in Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk, Ask-Hifa 2. On our agenda was to photograph a total of 10 garments during the day.Here you see Eivind in action photographing 1 of the 4 new designs for Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk in the courtyard next to the chapel. Yes, it was a cold day so Em did want that blanket. We started by photographing here as the funeral was going ahead in the Church Hall. After photographing the 4 garments made for Hillesvåg, we needed to get warm and decided to have lunch. I had checked catering but since we were only 7, we bought lunch from a coffee shop in the city center and brought a selections of drinks & fruit with us. As always we had plenty of fun and discussed postures for Em to test out. Both Sissel and I popped into a number of Eivind’s shoots to correct or adjust her hair, makeup or outfit. I love this shoot of Eivind explaining. Em is wearing the Bowery Tunic, one of the designs returned from Interweave, I had to photograph again before I can release it with new photos after the rights have reverted to me. The design was made for knit.wear Spring/Summer 2017. The high ceiling, the light concrete and the full height windows gave this entrance area a sacral light. The impressive lighting is even found in the corridor at the side of the Church Hall as well as inside the Hall itself.

I also wanted to show you half of the church seen from the car park towards the chapel and the courtyard behind it. The tower is the Light Tower and not the Bell Tower which is at the opposite end. We are standing in front of the opposite rusty cor-ten wall panel with the name carved into it. This is also were we ended our photoshoot. The priest came in and asked how it was going on all our locations. We had a brilliant day! Thank you! Now, I am trying to choose photos from Eivind’s selection and trying to finish those patterns…