In the the effort to promote my book I have to try to get as much attention as I can.
Fortunately, I came into contact with Lela Markham in one of the Facebook groups belonging to BooksGoSocial.com.
She agreed to make an interview with me on her site aurorawatcherak.wordpress.com
Thank you Lela!Interview with Oyvind Jonas Jellestad
Today’s interview is with Øyvind Jonas Jellestad. This article will include a book cover that features a nude model. I don’t run nudes on my blog as a rule. I’ve maintained PG standards for the most part. I don’t do interviews with authors who feature sexual exploitation in their books.
I do hope you will find the interview interesting
and I will be happy if you share it
either on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media.
If you press “Like”, both Lela Markham and I will be happy 🙂
Inappropriate images in the cover art
Please remove.
Since I started doing serious photography I have heard people react on “all the nakedness” in my pictures. When saying that I must admit that I don’t get that reaction in Norway or any other Scandinavian country.
The first edition of “When the Crowd Cries” was exactly like on both Amazon and iBooks. When I added some pages with text in the second edition I got the message that the book wasn’t approved because of the cover photo.
Unlike on the outside, exactly like on the inside!
Trying to discuss or even arguing with Apple is impossible so I had to change the cover photo (which make the title of the book meaningless).
I was tempted to just unpublish the iBooks edition but friends persuaded me not to.
Some people have seen the two different editions and asked me why. When I explain they all say the same; “In 2017?”.
Even in 1817 nude models were accepted!
And – in fact, there is not much nakedness in my pictures.
When I photograph women I am interested in capturing their naked soul.
Not the body!
A psychiatrist once said to me;
“People who see something pornographic in your pictures must be sick. Very sick!”
The girl who became jealous on herself
One day, it must have been in the beginning of spring,
AnneGrethe came to my studio for no reason.
She had been out shopping new leather clothes.
It was spring. The sun was shining. And she was bored.
I had in fact a lot to do but I was as bored as she was.
Spring has that effect on me.
I don’t like the sun …
An out-take from the book. I like it though.
We decided to play with light and camera and just do some shots just for fun.
No makeup and with her new leather clothes.
After she left I developed the films and especially one of the shots was very good.
Outstanding I will say.
I made a paper copy in 40×50 cm right away, framed it and hung it on the wall.
A couple of days later AnneGrethe was visiting me again. She was in a good mood because we should do some photographs later that week. Suddenly she spotted the picture hanging there and her face frowned.
«So you have got a new model?» she asked in a very hostile tone.
I worked with several models and she was used to that but it was obvious that she disliked this particular model inn a way I never had seen before. There was a long silence and I had problems to keep my mouth shut …
I looked at her as she watched the picture and she didn’t manage to hide her jealousy at all!
Then I could not hold back the laughter anymore and said; «AnneGrethe it’s you, don’t you see it? Don’t you recognize yourself?»
She went closer to the photograph and suddenly she embraced me and I think that tears came in her eyes.
I believe she sat watching the picture for at least one hour and she refused to go before I promised her a copy.
Of course I gave her that 🙂
I haven’t used that picture in this blog post as I will not publicize too many pictures from my book.
To find out more about her life, check out my book on Kindle and Apple
(There is a different cover on the Apple version though!)
Who was AnneGrethe Fuller?
«She will never be a model» was my immediate thought
when I met AnneGrethe for the first time.
Inexperienced and totally «ordinary»
and not exactly «the model type» …
Well, I couldn’t be more wrong!
When i developed her first test shots I was really amazed!
She was the kind of girl who was totally transformed
in front of a camera, she couldn’t even recognize herself in the first pictures.
“Star” an ad for “Brika” 1983
She was hired as a model for my first wife «Britt Kari» who was a fashion designer and had her own brand «Brika».
Quite successful she was too.
After the shooting sessions AnneGrethe and I used to play around with the clothes and experiment with different kind of makeups. Normally I used very little makeup or even none when I did fashion photographs. Nearly all my pictures were shot in black and white and the film’s sensitivity to red was enough for me.
My two Golden Retrievers «Balder and Nana» inspired me to the heavy black marking around the eyes and we had great fun in copying that.
I still think it came out very well.
We became friends and we also met socially outside work. It was still necessary for me to have a certain distance to her though. I was convinced that it would ruin my pictures if we came too close.
So there is not very much I know about her.
She was born in Bergen but her father was an American pilot and she had never met him. Her last name «Fuller» was his though and she used it as her own. I really don’t know her real last name.
Her greatest wish was to meet him one day and hopefully become a famous model and make him proud of her.
Unfortunately she never met him and «When the Crowd Cries» is the nearest she will become famous …
To find out more about her life, check out my book on Kindle and Apple
(There is a different cover on the Apple version though!)
Several small steps
And suddenly you’re there!
Of course it was a huge satisfaction for me to be accepted for a review of my book in «Summer in the City» the debut issue of «Crooked Teeth Literary Magazine».
And I would be a liar if I didn’t admit that I was very proud when I read the finished result …
And yes, thank you again Cori Amato Hartwig!
Forgotten was all those people I reached out to and who didn’t bother to answer.
Until now my book has only cost me money I have not earned anything at all.
But I have learned a lot!
Welcome
For the time being it is «Booksgosocial» which is my book promoter but indeed I do a lot of the work my self. All the ads and gif’s are my doing. Once I did this for a living and once I found it exciting.
Somehow I feel that even at 64 I can say that I have work to go to. I am retired and no one had thought it strange if I had met friends at the pub drinking beer. I don’t have to do anything!
I just want to.
Right now the summer is at its peak.
Working with «When the Crowd Cries» has been inspiring. So inspiring that I have decided to make another book with my photographs.
The cookbook project is a huge pile of work. It will at least take over a year, may be two to finish.
I have learned one thing about promoting.
Get the next book out quick!
Else you are forgotten …
The picture which illustrate this post is from my blog «My Portfolio» and have nothing to do with anything in my book but it’s a pic I have used several times to say «Goodbye» and sometimes «Welcome to my world» …
“When the Crowd Cries” is finally released
At last 🙂
My first book «When the Crowd Cries» was released yesterday, both on Apple’s «iBook» and Amazon’s «Kindle»!
I must admit that I am a bit proud of myself. It has been hard work indeed but I have learned a lot in the process and I do know that the hardest path lays ahead;The promotion of the book.
When the Crowd Cries
One very important thing I must say though. I used several days in trying to find out how to transform the book from ePub3 to «Kindle». There was a lot of solutions on the net but no one seemed to work for me. The lay-out of the book turned out totally messed up every time I tried, regardlessly what program I used for the conversion.
At last I found out that Amazon accept ePub3 and do the conversion themselves!
So if you are working on a project like me just concentrate on the work in «Adobe InDesign» and export your work in ePub3.
Today I have started on a list of magazines and press contacts and there will be more about the book on my blog «My Portfolio» – http://bandana.no in a couple of days.
Our National Day are on the 17th of May so a lot of this week goes away with celebration …
Anyway, I do hope you wish me luck.
I do need it 🙂