One of my good friends and favorite photographers, Havar Espedal, brings with him a unique style to portrait photography. His work can be considered elegant, yet spiked with an unabashed personality to show the world you can be classy with style. Being of Korean descent, with a Norwegian upbringing, and now residing in the suburbs of Washington DC, Havar has become well cultured, which is something that can’t be taught. This has allowed him to gain a unique awareness of people and their one of a kind traits. It is evident in his work as he’s able to shine light on their brightest characteristics.

Havar Espedal is an active photographer, who routinely holds photowalks that involve the community. He’s also taught classes on studio photography and is a mentor to many of the younger photographers in the area.

I had a chance to ask Havar a little bit about his career in photography and what the future holds for him.

How did you get started into photography?
I started as a photographer when i was 9 years old. My father had a dark room in the basement and gave me my first SLR. This camera had a broken light meter so he showed me how to read light by the eye and time of day and adjust the shutter and aperture accordingly.

What inspires you to do portrait photography?
I am inspired in the beauty I see around me. Beauty in motion, in a smile, in a longing look, in a face, and so on. All I want is to share with the world what many seem to ignore.

Do you find it particularly difficult to shoot people of varying personalities?
Manny people think that modeling is easy until they get in-front of a camera. It’s hard to shoot people that are shy and freeze up… it’s hard to shoot people that think that they have a “sexy” face that really looks more like they need to find a rest room. I always try to dig for the essence of people and show this in my photos… this is sometimes a challenge… but that’s half the fun.

What are your future aspirations for your work?
I would like to do full-time artistic photography, but I’m happy as long as I can take photos that other people appreciate.

To view more of Havar Espedal’s work, visit him at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photobyhe/

All images copyrighted by Havar Espedal. Do not use without permission.