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Søren Solkær Starbird
Søren Solkær Starbird (born September 3, 1969) is a Danish photographer best known for his distinctive portraits of musicians. He is most recognised as the man responsible for various iconic images of Björk, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, David Lynch, The Arctic Monkeys, R.E.M. and U2.

Early Life:
Starbird was born in Sønderborg, Denmark and completed a B.A. in Nordic Literature at Århus University before deciding upon a slight change of direction and enrolling in a B.A. in Photography at FAMU, the Photo & Film Academy in Prague, Czech Republic. In 1996, shortly after his formal education, Starbird established a studio in Copenhagen and began working with a range of Danish and International record labels, ad agencies and magazines.

Career:
Starbird soon teamed up with Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes on various projects, with Sune at one point accompanying Starbird as his assistant on shoots

Starbird was responsible for the strong visual tone of The Raveonettes from the early stages of their career, which placed him at the forefront of the Danish music scene throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. During this period, Starbird also made his music video directorial debut with Beat City – the second single released from The Raveonettes’ Whip It On (2002) album.

Concurrent to his work with musicians, Starbird furthered his specialisation in portraitures by undertaking an eight year project whereby he himself photographed many or the world’s leading photographers. ‘Photographers Posed’ comprised 45 photographers from 15 countries, including the likes of Arnold Newman, Duane Michals, Pierre et Gilles, Anton Corbijn, Jan Saudek and Jeanloup Sieff. The collection featured Starbird’s own portrayal of the distinctive style synonymous with each of his subjects and was exhibited in galleries spanning Chicago, Copenhagen, Cologne, Prague and Odense.

Starbird expanded his portfolio within the music industry by being selected as a contributing photographer for Q Magazine, Rolling Stone and GQ. As a result, he toured with Franz Ferdinand in Russia, Metallica in Portugal and Oasis in Argentina. He has also moved into the world of cinema, having photographed famous film personalities James Franco, Danny Boyle, Tim Burton, David Lynch and John Waters.

Starbird’s magazine credentials include shooting the cover photography for Q Magazine, EKKO, Gaffa and Soundvenue.

He has been commissioned by major labels such as Universal, Sony and EMI to shoot the likes of Metallica, The White Stripes, Primal Scream, Mark Ronson, Kasabian, Tom Jones, Regina Spektor, Stereophonics, Vampire Weekend and Led Zeppelin.

His recent subjects include Damon Albarn, Adele, Arcade Fire, The Arctic Monkeys, Richard Ashcroft, Karl Barât, Shirley Bassey, Beck, Björk, Bloc Party, Ian Brown, John Cale, The Dead Weather, Tina Dickow, Franz Ferdinand, Bryan Ferry, Foo Fighters, Gnarls Barkley, The Good The Bad and the Queen, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Kashmir, The Killers, Jay Kay, The Killers, Avril Lavigne, Led Zeppelin, Lily Allen, The Manic Street Preachers, Johnny Marr, Paul McCartney, Mew, MIKA, Kylie Minogue, Metallica, Moby, Muse, Kate Nash, Nephew, Oasis, P.J. Harvey, Powersolo, Primal Scream, The Raveonettes, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Mark Ronson, The Scissor Sisters, Sigur Ros, Mikael Simpson, Patti Smith, Jon Spencer, Rod Stewart, Michael Stipe, The Streets, Anders Trentemøller, U2, Rufus Wainwright, Paul Weller, The White Stripes, The Who and Amy Winehouse.

Alongside Starbirds extensive work with celebrities, he has also pursued various portrait projects with subjects from very different backgrounds. During the period 1999-2009 he photographed thousands of practitioners of Raja yoga meditation in Rajasthan, India. In 2009 he portrayed a large delegation of spiritual leaders at the UN Cop 15 Summit in Copenhagen. At Roskilde Festival in 2009 he built a studio in a shipping container and for 6 days he turned his camera from the musicians to the festivalgoers and created a cycle of intimate portraits.

Works:
Starbird has released three photography books. Beat City (2006) documents his earlier work with musicians juxtaposed with cinematic city scapes from across the world whilst his followup, CLOSER (2011) , is a hard-cover coffee table book containing 238 pages of his most iconic portraits of musicians.

In late 2011, Starbird released his third book, Souls. Souls features portraits of meditating yogis taken on the top of Mount Abu, Rajahstan, India – the result of Starbird’s seven journeys to the region. The Souls project has been exhibited in New York, Oxford, Copenhagen, Milano, Napoli, Bratislava and Reykjavik.

The CLOSER exhibition in Øksnehallen, Copenhagen was noteworthy for its scale – occupying over 24,000 square feet of exhibition space and featuring 327 images in formats up to 3x4.5 meters. The exhibition was largely praised by the Danish media and received a ‘six out of six’ rating from the leading national newspaper Politiken and was subsequently nominated for best Cultural Event 2009 by AOK.

Notably, Starbird’s images are featured in the cover art for Franz Ferdinand’s 2009 album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand as well as Stereophonics’ seventh studio album Keep Calm and Carry On.

Starbird’s works are also featured as part of the permanent collection in The Royal Library of Copenhagen and The National Portrait Collection in Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

 * 2012 “CLOSER”, Art Equity, Sydney, Australia
 * 2012 ”CLOSER”, The Danish Cultural Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland
 * 2011 “CLOSER”, Halvandet, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * 2011 “CLOSER”, Gibson Gallery, London, U.K.
 * 2010 “CLOSER”, Spazio Lattuada, Milan, Italy
 * 2009 “CLOSER”, Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * 2008 “Souls” Mazzotta Art Selection/eg22, Milan, Italy
 * 2007 “Souls” Inner Space, Oxford, England
 * 2006 “Beat City” Horsens Kunstmuseum, Denmark
 * 2006 “Beat City” Århus Kunstbygning, Denmark
 * 2005 “Beat City” Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * 2005 “Souls”, Reykjavik Town Hall Gallery, Iceland
 * 2004 “Souls”, Month of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia.
 * 2004 “Souls”, Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * 2004 “Metropol”, Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark.
 * 2003 “Third Eye”, IN CAMERA Gallery, Chelsea, New York
 * 1998 “Photographers Posed”, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, USA
 * 1998 “Photographers Posed”, Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark
 * 1997 “Photographers Posed”, Fotokina Cologne, Germany
 * 1996 “Photographers Posed”, Frederiks Bastion, Copenhagen, Denmark
 * 1995 “Photographers Posed”, Galleri Radost FX, Prague, Czech Republic

Inspirations and Style:
Starbird’s photography is characterised by finding a tension point between intimacy and edginess. His portraits are often regarded as cinematic in tone with a distinctive colour palette. He cites the inspirations for his style as ranging from filmmakers David Lynch and Wong Kar-Wai through to the works of photographer Philip-Llorca diCorcia and painter Caspar David Friedrich.

Accolades:
“Søren has a great understanding of light, and a rare eye for beauty and portrature.” – Michael Stipe, R.E.M.

“Working with Søren, nothing feels invasive or exploitative. You trust him and you forget about his lens. It becomes invisible.” – Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand

“Anyone who can keep five uninterested grown men in coats from Leeds in his view-finder for more than five seconds, must be some kind of a genius” – Ricky Wilson, Kaiser Chiefs

External links:
Official Søren Solkær Starbird website: www.starbird.dk