Practice

I work with photography, portraiture and research.

Photography is my way of understanding people and the relationships between them. I work slowly, allowing trust, collaboration and sustained attention to shape both the images and the process itself. Portraiture lies at the centre of my practice. I see the portrait not simply as a representation of a person, but as a meeting. I am interested in how photographs can create space for complexity, challenge fixed ideas about identity, and preserve moments that might otherwise disappear.

This approach is central to my ongoing project Conversations on Sex and Work, developed in close collaboration with sex workers. Through portraits and written conversations, the project places lived experience at the centre, challenging the historical silencing of sex workers' own voices in public discourse. Photography and writing are equally important parts of the work, allowing individual stories to exist within broader social and political contexts.

The same approach informs my long-term portraits of my daughter. Over many years, photography has become a shared language between us. More recently, this work has focused on the temporary artworks she creates through makeup, using photography to preserve works that disappear at the end of the day while also documenting our evolving relationship.

Following my autism diagnosis in 2025, I found a new language for understanding my own artistic practice. Rather than changing the way I photograph, it helped me recognise the importance of sustained attention, perception and sensory experience within my work. These questions have gradually become a subject of investigation in their own right.

I am available for exhibitions, artist talks, lectures, editorial collaborations and documentary or portrait commissions.

I am a member of FFF – Forbundet Frie Fotografer, the Norwegian Association of Fine Art Photographers.

Contact:

Email
nilesimari@gmail.com

Phone
+47 466 32 054

Instagram
@unbearablelightness

Support my work
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/iselinkristiansen