Ludvik lived in his car – now he works on international film sets.

 

Among a hundred film workers in a film studio in Oslo, Ludvik Baksaas stands in front of a large, LED-powered green screen as his great role model Erling Braut Haaland enters the room. 

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Just a few years ago, the 26-year-old from Horten lived in a self-built campervan – a small van with room for just one bed – to save money while he built up a portfolio as a freelance photographer.

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-I struggled with dyslexia and anxiety during my school years. Later in life, I learned to convey emotions and my view of the world through photography. Through this work, I have also learned to ask for help and to confront injustice, he says. My interest in photography was sparked in my first days at Media and Communication at high school, first in Holmestrand and later in Horten.

 

– That's when I started working with Photoshop and editing. It was a revelation. Right then and there I thought: This is what I want to do for the rest of my life, he says.

 

While he was still in high school, he started taking paid assignments. The first ones came through his older brother Bendik, who is a musician.

 

– He took me to concerts when I was 16. I took pictures of him and his colleagues and eventually I went to festivals to gain more experience and build a portfolio.​

 

But freelance life also had a downside. The economy was very demanding for a long time. To survive, he had to live cheaply.​ When the car had an engine failure, he contacted Toyota and proposed a collaboration: photos in exchange for a car. 

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A clear breakthrough came when he got to work with the outdoor brand Arc’teryx. Since then, the assignments have become increasingly larger. Recently, Ludvik worked as part of the VFX team on Nike’s new advertising campaign “A Mind-Altering Shoe”, with, among others, Erling Braut Haaland. There, he was tasked with animating the background on the LED green screen live during the recording.

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– It was completely surreal, in a very good way. Haaland has been a role model for a long time. He was only there for about 40 minutes, but there were a hundred people working to make everything work in that short time.

 

In parallel with commercial assignments, he has also worked for organizations such as Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion. In March, he documented the historic climate lawsuit in which Greenpeace and Natur og Ungdom won against the Norwegian state.

 

In 2019, he received Horten Municipality's cultural grant – something he still highlights as crucial.

 

– It was a huge confirmation. I have looked at that diploma almost every day. It reminded me that there were more people than me who had dared.​ I would like to express my great gratitude to Horten Municipality for the cultural grant in 2019, which provided crucial support through a demanding financial period and contributed to a sustainable and successful freelance life.

 

Going forward, he will seek support for a larger documentary project about nomads in different parts of the world.

 

​~Written by Yngve Skomsvoll, journalist