Studio Brinth
Jacob Brinth and Alice Delsenne, hailing from Denmark and France, respectively, crossed paths in Copenhagen in 2015, and are now married together and living in France. Both with educational backgrounds in product design, they now seek to articulate their reflections on space and products through photography.
In 2018, they established NUE Studio, specializing in furniture and interior design. Initially focusing on photographing their own design projects, they soon expanded to collaborate with architects, designers, design brands, galleries, and more. In 2021, they settled in France, opening a studio with clients spanning across European cities such as Paris, Milan, Brussels, London, and beyond.
With a keen insight into minimalism, they consistently pursue the perfection of details and composition presented through photography. During their time in Denmark, Jacob Brinth and Alice Delsenne explored the art of shaping and combining objects in space. Their works resemble classic paintings with chiaroscuro effects, exuding a mysterious allure that captivates the audience.
- Art: Studio Brinth
Photography is a static art, how do you capture a rich dynamic landscape through the lens?
In interior photography, it’s true, the setting is static and it can be tricky to add life to the images without any human presence or dynamic movement happening.
In our photography we have a very moody and dramatic style which adds to the visual dynamics of the setting. We like to create our images as if they were classical chiaroscuro paintings, and we often add a bit of mystery that intrigues the viewer and draws you in.
The process often starts by finding the best angles in the space, often with an interesting architectural element or a dramatic directional lighting. And then, much like a painter composes their scenes on canvas, we compose and style our images. We are minimalists when it comes to composition: Every element in the frame has a strong purpose, adding to the visual narrative.
Does a designer’s background offer advantages in your work as a spatial or product photographer, such as a professional expertise, logical thinking, or approach?
As former designers, our journey into photography began with taking pictures of our furniture and interior projects for our own design studio. This started a passion for creating images, leading us to collaborate with brands and designers in Denmark then in Paris, and now all over Europe.
Our design background allows us to communicate effectively with our collaborators & clients, establishing a deeper connection and helping us to truly understand the artistic context as well as the technical aspects of each project.
We love having passionate discussions with our clients about their philosophy and design approach, and this enriches our photographic interpretation and the aesthetic choices that we make for the images we create. We try to capture the designs as if they were our own.
Both the lens and the human eye “observe” the same object; do they hold any differences for you?
There's a big difference between what we experience through the human eye and what we experience through the camera lens, the challenge is to “translate” what we see and feel in real life, into what the final images express.
During an interior shooting we compose everything through the live view of the camera, and when moving and composing the objects in frame, we rely on our intuition and our communication to get the composition to feel right. It is like a big puzzle, where all the pieces have a specific purpose and place.
As a long-time professional duo, and married couple, we understand and trust each other completely, and oftentimes we don’t even have to speak together to know which objects need to be moved in the composition to make it feel right. It’s the best feeling when all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, total satisfaction.
What do you think of the phrase: “photography as a sudden burst of aesthetic revelation”?
We appreciate how the phrase highlights photography as revealing the aesthetic of a certain moment. However, the way we approach photography is with a lot of preparation and also post-production, so it is less of a spontaneous or “sudden burst” of revelation.
Take for example an image from the series “What’s for Dinner" for the gallery Objects With Narratives’ exhibition in Brussels during Collectible Fair 2023. The concept of this shooting was to illustrate a surreal “after-dinner” scene with traces of mystery.
We spent weeks preparing the artistic direction in collaboration with their design team to make unique images. This particular shooting had a long post-production process, as we took multiple-exposures that allowed us to create surrealist images featuring floating objects.
When you look at the image, we want you to feel like it's a surreal and spontaneous moment captured in time, even though it's all intentionally designed to evoke that feeling.
In “DESACRALISED”, the light gives the product a silhouette and life, how did you get this dramatic inspiration?
The location was in an old desacralised church in Milano with a particular moody atmosphere, and there was a design exhibition held by Galerie Philia at the time.
During the day the lighting changed a lot, and It was just around 3:00pm in the afternoon that the sunlight came through the central window aligning perfectly with what we wanted to highlight: The monumental designs by Arno Declercq, crafted in white oiled oak.
We accentuated this particular central beam of light in our editing process to add an even more dramatic effect, giving the scene a sacred atmosphere.
The intent was to evoke the feeling of an old chiaroscuro painting from the Renaissance era. We wanted to give the impression that these contemporary design pieces have existed in this church for centuries, creating a sense of timelessness.
