Peter Madsen

My name is Peter M. Madsen. I’m a Danish commercial photographer and have worked as such since 1985. Besides my commercial work, I have always done much non-commercial photography (see tips).

I guess it has been a kind of mental hygienic process to dive into projects where I could make all the decisions myself and would not have to satisfy my client’s needs.

In 2013, my family and I moved to the UK, and due to new circumstances, I got the chance to look more into art photography and all the challenges connected to that. Again, it turned out to be more than just photography.

I experienced that the difficulties related to expatriating and my journey into the world of art photography had some very spiritual parallels.

Since I have “only” worked more focused on art photography through the last 8 years, I guess I’m still young in that business. I’m still working on my artistic expression. I can see that having a defined style makes the work stronger and stand more out.

On the other hand, I still have some corners of photography that I want to look into, so I guess I’ll do experiments for more years to come.

I am a sucker for gear, so I have A lot of it, and laying everything out would be too much, so I’ll describe some of the content of my bag when I do landscapes and exteriors etc.

Besides the Fuji, I also have a Canon EOS-1DX Mark II and Canon EOS 5DS R and a Mamiya RZ 67 with lots of accessories. However, when exploring landscapes on a bicycle, I quickly found out that size does matter.

If I know I’m only shooting stills, I’ll take the Fuji X-T3 and my two zoom lenses Fuji 10-24mm f/4 and Fuji 18-135mm f/3,5-5,6. I also carry ND64 and ND1000 filters from Ice for both lenses (it’s such a nuisance that the lenses have different filter diameters).

And last but not least, a Vanguard VEO 265CB tripod. All this gear (and my lunch box and water bottle) I can carry in a LowePro classified sling 180 AW back (discontinued, unfortunately). With this set, I’m covered for almost whatever I might find on my tours.

The slingback is perfect for difficult situations, where I have to have quick access to my gear, but only one hand to find it with the other hand holding the camera.

Recently I have started doing more video, and for that, I find the 5 axis in-body stabilization in the Fuji X-H1 very convenient. For sound, I use the Røde Video Microphone Pro+. For beautiful smooth slides, I use an Edelkrone Wing, because it fits nicely into the bag.

Because of the lovely bokeh, I like to use the Fuji 56mm f/1.2 for portraits, sometimes with a Godox V860 II flashgun with X Pro F trigger and different Lastolite Reflectors. The fast 56mm also works well with the two other primes, Fuji 18mm f/2 and Fuji 35mm f/2 WR in low light conditions such as reportage, etc.

Recently I have started experimenting with all sorts of old Soviet analogue prime lenses. It’s fascinating what it does to the way I work when I have to slow down and take the time to get everything right with these slow lenses. I like the slight softness from the Lomo T-43 40mm f/4 on an FX adapter.

Due to the relatively thick adapter, it’s possible to build in a tilt functionality like the one on this Helios 44M-4 58mm f/2 which gives a ton of possibilities for creative experiments when shooting portraits for instance.

I hope you have enjoyed the read. If you’d like to see more of my work, please visit my website below for art photography.

www.uskarp.dk | @petermmadsen