Elise Vatsvaag

© 2011 Brian Adams

Early last week, my friend, music producer Erik Braund, emailed me a short but sweet message. "Hey," he wrote, "I want to hire you to shoot a Norwegian girl. Hasseblad, the Adams touch." Erik had me at Hasselblad. The "Norwegian girl" was singer/songwriter Elise Vatsvaag. Elise recently moved to NYC from Norway to work on her debut album with Erik. Elise is here on a 70,000 NOK grant she recieved from the Kjetil Wold Memory Fund in 2010.

The morning of the photo shoot, Elise and I met on Surf Avenue at Coney Island, and from there we photographed on the beach, the board walk, and under the peir. From Coney Island, we hopped on the F train to Manhattan and continued the shoot while the train was above ground. We got off the F train at 23rd and worked our way over to the Flatiron District, where we finished the session. Elise was wonderful to photograph and I can't thank Erik enough for setting it up!