Casper Sejersen. Casper Sejersen. Casper Sejersen. For two years this name kept coming at me from all angles. Friends talked about him, how he worked with the director Lars von Trier. His photography was published in Vogue, and he shot back-to-back fall lookbooks for Dries Van Noten. Then I learned he created the green velvet apple that was the set for fellow Dane Cecilie Bahnsen’s Paris show. And that he photographed McQueen’s resort 2025 lookbook, published here earlier this week. My interest was piqued: Who is this guy?
Sejersen is a calm bearded Dane with interesting things to say about taking chances and the current state of fashion. When we talked, via Zoom, he was sporting a white shirt unbuttoned to reveal a golden pendant in the shape of the sun that showed to advantage his just-back-from-vacation tan. On his tattooed left hand one finger is stacked with rings. He possesses a kind of golden glow, not because of the jewelry, but because luck seems to be on his side.
Dreaming of becoming a rockstar, he moved to Copenagen and fell into photography. Von Trier’s office called out of the blue and gave him carte blanche to create Belongs to Joe, a photographic essay based on the script of Nymphomaniac, which has been described as a “visual history of eroticism.”
What I find so compelling about Sejersen’s work is that he takes pictures with a starling, almost crystalline clarity yet they aren’t necessarily about perfection. Often something’s “off,” but it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly why or how. It’s no surprise to me that one of Sejersen’s touchstones is The Little Prince, the book whose golden-haired space traveler hero said, “what is essential is invisible to the eye.” He’ll be shooting one of the up-and-coming brands at Copenhagen Fashion Week, a real boost for the label. I spoke to him about projects former and forthcoming.
Let’s start at the beginning; where are you from?
I am from the northern part of Denmark, from a city called Aalborg. At the time I grew up, it was kind of like the Danish Liverpool, a rough industrial city with a big shipyard, concrete factory, where schnapps is brewed. In high school I played drums and I thought I was going to be a rockstar with my band, so we moved to Copenhagen—at least most of us did. Then—I’ll try to give you the short version of a very long story—I needed new drums, I needed money for a private teacher, so I took a lot of different jobs.