Henrik Knudsen

Henrik Knudsen studied computer science and maths in his native Denmark, and though he may have missed his scientific calling, this background has left him refreshingly free from any hang-ups about using computers.

Not that his work looks manipulated: stylistically, it's loose and naturalistic - "not exactly documentary, but nearly", as he puts it. This means that, typically, he'll try to work organically with any given location, using existing lighting, then paring back or embellishing what's already there with a box of signature lighting tricks: torches, little battery lights, flashes.

Not that he's a 'big production' guy. "It's quite improvised," he says. But where once he was fixated by people and portraits, lighting in its own right has become a growing preoccupation, reflecting the debt he says his work owes to his fascination with cinema. "Light itself can be narrative," he asserts.

This interest in light, he suggests, may equally be drawn from his geographical observations: because although he now divides his time between London and New York, Knudsen agrees there is still a definite regional look, inextricably linked to the nature of daylight in the Nordic countries. It's such a defining feature of life there, even a deracinated Scandinavian such as himself can't prevent it informing his work.

"The lack of light, the way it gets dark in winter, the way the skies are so low: there's a greyness to days that means when light breaks through it can be all the more beautiful," he says. "I quite like the darkness, now I'm not there so much. Quite a few of my pictures have light and darkness coming through. And my colours, yes, are more muted."

But it was a desire to specialise that led Knudsen to quit Denmark. "It's not that I don't like Scandinavia, but Denmark has a population of five million, and is a relatively small community - which dictates the type of work you can do. It makes it difficult to specialise and you have to be versatile to take on every job."

He doesn't work there at all now, and laughs that Denmark has forgotten about him. He admits, however, that he'd shoot portraits for the Danish national dailies when they don't have their own photographer in London.