Sunday talk with laura short

Idag tänkte vi starta igång vår lilla söndagsserie här på bloggen där vi pratar med personer som inspirerar oss om deras ritualer, hur deras kreativa process ser ut och vilka favoriter de har i badrumsskåpet. Först ut är Laura Short, som har varit en Instagramvän i flera år. Laura jobbar som Art Director och fotograf, och hennes vackra bildspråk och öga för detaljer, oftast fotade med hennes analoga kamera, inspirerar oss alltid. Just nu är hon aktuell med fotoboken Prose “an album of photographs accompanied by fragments of poetry”.

Laura Short

Age: 40
Family: Husband and 2 sons
Occupation: Art Director & Photographer
Place of residence: Aarhus, Denmark

Hi Laura! First, how are you?
Well hello there! I am well, thank you for asking. Hope you are too?

Tell us about a typical weekday morning?
My mornings start early, around 5:30 when my sons wake up. They come into our bed for a morning cuddle around 6:00 and then we get up and have breakfast together at 6:30. In Wintertime, we eat by candlelight. When Spring arrives, we watch the pink skies and the sun come up. We walk to school at 7:30. It is a 5 minute walk and we listen out for pigeons and talk about what the moon looks like that day.

Do you have any morning rituals?
I always light a candle and sometimes also an Astier de Villatte insence stick. Our favourite is Marienbad.

Which family rituals do you value the most?
We always eat together in the evening. Our morning cuddle at 6:00 is sacred too. On Sunday morning, we make a stack of pancakes for the kids and have breakfast late with the paper and music in the background.

Tell us about your relationship to creativity, what does that process look like?
I definitely need to be inspired to create. Sometimes I can feel pressured if I need to create on a deadline if I am not inspired. Creativity can crop up at any time but it definitely is the way I have expressed myself ever since I was a little girl. I make time for it. It could be around the table but it is mostly with a camera in hand. I like to be tactile, so having something in my hands is a very comfortable feeling for me.

What inspires you?
I can be inspired by the simplest thing and will feel the need to create afterwards. Travel, art and architecture are a huge source of inspiration to me. I love it that both my children are creative too, in different ways.

Manifest – your dreams and visions forward?
I would love to keep working freelance and expanding my clientel. I would be so happy to keep making a living off doing what I love.
Perhaps another book of photography but creating is a definite, that’s for sure.

Do you have a philosophy when it comes to exercise?
It should be enjoyable! I like to be outside and could not possibly enjoy being stuck in a gym. I like to feel the fresh and salty beach air when I go for a run.

Your philosophy when it comes to food?
I eat very healthily and I have been a vegetarian for 35 years, we try to eat vegan but we do eat cheese sometimes. We have not found a good alternative.

I have a sweet tooth so that can be a little tricky when it comes to cakes, but I am also someone who believes that everything you eat, should be really good, otherwise it’s not worth it. Ever since I was young, I have enjoyed vegetables to a major extend so I eat lots of greens. I am secretly hopeful the world will be vegetarian in 15-20 years and hopefully vegan after that.

Rituals for your home, what’s important to you to thrive at home?
I would like it be clean and I don’t thrive well when it’s messy, the beds are unmade and there are too many things around. I have a big selection of baskets and boxes to keep things in.

Every morning I make all the beds. On Wednesdays I buy flowers from the market which last all week. That is my favourite ritual.

Three favorites from your bathroom cabinet?
Santa Maria Novella Rosewater, Buly mouthwater and Woods Copenhagen masks.

Any tip on how to give everyday life that extra sparkle?
Make sure to put your phone away and see what you come up with. That’s where true happiness lays. For me, it’s reading.

Buy some fresh flowers or choose your nicest clothes, just because it makes you feel good. I always put colourful socks on too (Maria La Rosa) and could not imagine life without nice socks, as crazy as that sounds.

Which season do you feel most at ease?
Spring. I love the promise of green and the birds singing.

Thank you Laura for the talk. <3 /Nathalie och Cattis