We are a team.
We’ve been taking pictures forever. It’s kinda how we met. . . . long before we were married for 20 years, and long before we had a TikTok-obsessed 13 year old + cats Sharky & Godzilla, we met in the Santa Monica College Photography Program.
Louise (99% Swedish 1% Finish) was a telemark skier from Gothenburg, Sweden - with family lineage that can be traced back to the Vikings - came to LA with dreams of rollerblading down the sunny Venice boardwalk. Ari (50% European Jewish 30% Indigenous American 20% Spanish) - who has no discernable roots because both of his parents were adopted - grew up in Pasadena, CA.
One day I walked into the dark room at school and there she was. One look at her Uma Thurman/ Pulp Fiction haircut, baggy jeans, skate shoes and cropped T and I was done for! If being a photographer meant that I got to spend time with her, then I was going to be a photographer. So I begged my mom to help me get a fancy camera, got a job at the local camera shop and followed the advice of my professors - “start assisting working photographers”.
On my first day as an assistant, I shoveled 50 years of dog shit in a random backyard location and locked my keys in the trunk of my car, but I also met crew of assistants who became lifelong friends and eventually introduced me to a slew of amazing photographers I went on to assist and learn from, including Mark Seliger, Peggy Sirota, Jeff Lipsky, Justin Stephens and Sheryl Nields. Meanwhile, Louise was training in darkroom printing with LA’s best printer, and later joined me in assistant work. From there we spent years shooting on our own to build a portfolio we could be proud enough to put in front of clients. Cut to Nov 30th 2009, and as I’m holding our newborn Charlie in the hospital, Michael Norseng from Esquire calls to offer us our first assignment. The rest, as they say, is history.
These days, Lou is in charge of the business end of things, and provides her calming presence and Viking-level of focus on set, and in general steers me like a ship. She also gives me space and time to experiment, bond with my subjects and in general just makes everything RUN like a clock. It simply wouldn’t be possible without her.