Michela Heim Is Anonymous

You could be mistaken for thinking you were looking at stills from films—shot either from before 1980 or in the hazy, nostalgic style used by the likes of Sofia Coppola—when scrolling through the work of Norwegian art and photography student Michela Heim. The 28 year-old’s work is filled with shots of quiet streets and moments of solitary introspection, and benefits from her patience and trust that the moments worth capturing will show themselves at the right moments.

“Even though I love staged photography, I haven’t done much of it. Yet,” Michela told us of her affinity with spontaneous moments. “So most of my photographs are results of a moment of honesty. Sometimes I ask the person to freeze or turn their head a little to get a better composition.”

“I see many people using turned-away or hidden faces as an expression in their photography. There’s something haunting about it and it also invites the viewer to see themselves in the photograph, in a way,” Michela, who says she is “very inspired by Anni Leppälä”—a photographer who rarely reveals her subjects’ identities—explained. Indeed, in her pictures we are able to glean and imagine more about the lives of the people within the frame than, perhaps, we would be able to were we able to see their faces. They are the people we already know, and we are left walking behind them, waiting for them to turn around and remember we’re there.

You can see more of Michela’s work on her Flickr stream.

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  Michela Heim