Nina and Torben stand in a clearing beyond dark pine trunks in the forest on Rømø.

RØMØ, DENMARK55.1396° N, 8.4762° E · MAY · LOVERS SESSION

SONGS OF THE SEA

We went to make portraits. They got a day of their own.

I knew Torben before I knew him as one half of Nina and Torben. He used to live next door and played in a band I had photographed on stage and for portraits. By then, the camera was no longer the strange part between us.

Nina and Torben were already married when we drove to Rømø. So what was this? A portrait session, technically. The island was my idea because turning up, making a few photographs and driving home felt like reducing the whole thing to an appointment. I wanted them to go somewhere together and have a day there. Enough time for the obvious wedding portraits to get out of the way, and enough room to see what came after.

Something small changes in me almost every time I drive across the causeway to Rømø. I once called it Rømø magic, which sounds grander than I mean it, but the feeling is real. I had told Nina and Torben about it before we went. I hoped they might feel some version of it too.

Empty pale dunes beneath an overcast sky on Rømø, with a row of wooden posts in the sand.
Nina and Torben walk together as small figures along a broad path between the dunes.
Nina in a white dress and Torben in a dark suit stand hand in hand in the open dunes.
Torben holds Nina close while both laugh in the wind among the dunes.
Cropped view of Nina’s bare feet and Torben’s shoes stepping across the crest of a sandy dune.
Nina and Torben walk barefoot across the sand, holding hands and looking toward each other.
Torben leads Nina by the hand as they run laughing down a pale dune.
Nina and Torben run hand in hand through the dunes, both laughing into the wind.
Close crop of Nina and Torben’s joined hands while they move through the dunes.
Nina and Torben stand together in the distance beyond tall, windblown dune grass.
The couple runs along a distant dune ridge, partly obscured by soft grass in the foreground.
Torben holds Nina against his chest in a quiet embrace surrounded by pale sand.
Nina and Torben kiss among tall beach grass, their faces crossed by fine stems.
Torben closes his eyes as Nina rests against him in the warm brown beach grass.
Nina touches Torben’s beard as they embrace, with a small bunch of wildflowers between them.
Black-and-white close-up of Torben kissing Nina’s hand as she looks toward him.
Nina and Torben hold each other in the centre of a wide, empty stretch of sand.
Nina leans into Torben as both laugh, his hand pushed through his windblown hair.
Intentionally blurred portrait of Nina and Torben standing close together in front of the grey sea.
Nina and Torben stand close in the heath, facing opposite directions while holding hands.
Nina and Torben stand together as small figures in a dark stretch of Rømø heathland.
Nina and Torben stand in a clearing beyond dark pine trunks in the forest on Rømø.
Panoramic view through tall pine trunks with the couple barely visible on a distant ridge.
Nina and Torben stand together beneath tall, wind-shaped pine trees on a sandy rise.
A single figure stands small between tall pine trees on a ridge in the Rømø forest.
Nina and Torben run hand in hand up a grassy slope toward a line of pine trees.
The couple appears as tiny figures beside wind-shaped pines on a dark ridge.
Seen from behind, Torben wraps an arm around Nina as they look across the heath.
Nina and Torben walk away together with their arms around each other beneath a pale sky.
Nina and Torben stand partly hidden behind a blurred mound of dune grass.
Torben lifts Nina from the ground as they kiss on the edge of the dunes.
Nina holds Torben’s head in both hands as they kiss against the dark heath.
Nina and Torben walk side by side across wet sand toward the grey North Sea.
Nina and Torben embrace on the empty shoreline with the sea stretching behind them.
Nina and Torben appear as tiny figures among pale dunes overlooking the distant sea.

Nothing dramatic happened. Good. The wedding was already behind them, and Rømø did not need to pretend to be another one. Afterwards, Nina and Torben told me that everything had settled and gone quiet as soon as they crossed the causeway onto the island. They were there. I knew exactly what they meant.

Songs of the Sea is a couple photoshoot in Denmark with Nina and Torben on Rømø, photographed after their wedding. The session moves across the island's dunes, shoreline and pine forest and remains what it was: a portrait session after the wedding. Bjørn suggested the trip because Rømø has always felt different to him from the moment the causeway reaches the island. The result combines cinematic and documentary couple photography with movement, time together and deliberately constructed portraits.

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