Camp Refusenik

When we were younger my sister and I quite enjoyed horsing around in our back yard, with a bunch of friends from up and down the road. We would tie our blonde hair into a ponytail and put a loop of twine in our mouth. A chimeric equipage, horse and rider both, we were still kids about to learn the facts of life. It was around that same time my dad, the doctor, pulled me aside to inform me that although he considered himself a cultural Christian he did not believe in an afterlife and had no faith in an interventionist God.

It was around that time too, that another pony girl’s ’s dad, the minister, pulled us aside to ask if we were interested in some boxes of old songbooks? He had too many since kids in my day were now too cool for Sunday school. We enthusiastically said yes, as you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. We put the books to good use by building fences for our showjumping competition, which became instantly much more realistic, as we could now subtract scores for brushing the wall and knocking down books. It was an improvised implementation of rhythm and rhyme into our everyday and now I know from experience that God’s word can take you higher, even when you are losing your religion. In a godless universe you must become your own divine creature.

This photo session took place in Viborg, and Hald Ege, Denmark, in July 2017.

Thanks to my models Laust, Jubsi, Adam, Eleanor, Sigga, Ditte, Smilla, and Dalardis, who made the magic happen, and to my photographer, Jonathan Ross, who helped capture it.