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This is the story. The full story.

If I were to note down one experience that has meant a lot to me – even changed me – I know exactly what to highlight.

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Since I moved into the apartment I had been fascinated by the view and the fog made it even more interesting. I sat on the foot end of the bed and watched the fog as it moved gracefully around the roof tops.

 

Although the instant beauty caught me off guard, I knew I had to try and capture the moment. I grabbed my camera phone and took some snapshots through the panorama window. As an experienced iPhonographer, I knew I had to take several shots to get at least one decent picture.

Not only did I take pictures of the fascinating fog landscape for my own sake, I thought it would

be a suitable support picture for the article I was taking pictures for later on that day.

 

 

Let’s go back to the 9th of January 2013. It was a Wednesday. A foggy Wednesday in Liverpool. I was at home and had a day off from university. As I was Photo Editor of JMU Journalism, I had one photo job scheduled for the day. It had been foggy for days, but the fog had been way too thick for me to capture it well. I lived in West Tower, Liverpool tallest building, and had a gorgeous view overlooking the city. When I woke up that day, I looked out my bedroom window to find a carpet-like layer of fog moving slowly towards the docks and the Royal Liver Building.

To be honest, I actually thought the fog would ruin the picture I was going to take for JMU Journalism later on the same day. The story I was going to covering was a PR-stunt were The Liverpool Empire were recreating the wooden Hollywood-sign in honor of Dolly Parton taking her show ’9 to 5′ to Liverpool. The ‘Dollywood’-sign were going to be showcased for the press from the park top of Liverpool ONE, facing towards the docks. At home, on the 30th floor, I figured the fog layer would put a damper on the picture of the wooden sign, so my snapshots from the bedroom was going to illustrate the foggy weather if it ruined the press photo I was about to take.

First published in 2014

At the scene of the PR-stunt, I quickly turned on the 3G 
​on my phone to post one of the fog pictures on Instagram.

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I just about managed to upload one before the theatre team from the Liverpool Empire arrived at Liverpool ONE. The story went well and there were no fog trouble for the ‘Dollywood’-sign. Back home I edited and sent of the story before going back to work on my university assignments in the living room. I had a table covered in books and an essay, in the law module, due in a week or so later. I was actually a bit stressed out that I hadn't got further with it already. A few more hours went by and I posted the fog picture from Instagram on both Facebook and Twitter. This was followed by a complete close down of all internet browsers to focus all my attention on the ‘reputation essay’.

 

In the evening, I checked Facebook to see if the picture had got any ‘likes’. It had received some likes, but I wasn't overwhelmed in any way. It had also got an ‘average plus’ response on Twitter. I remember texting a friend and mentioning that I had got six retweet on the picture on Twitter, which was a bit more than I was used to. Although I was happy about the acknowledgment on Twitter – I still had absolutely no idea about the wide audience my picture had reached.

It took at least another hour before I received a Facebook message from a course mate asking me if it was my picture featured in a tweet he had seen.

He sent me a link to the tweet which had been retweeted more than 300 times. And it was my picture. I couldn't believe it! I think I looked both to my left and right with a shocked face before I replied saying that it was my picture in the tweet he had seen. 

 

A bit shaky, but still unaware of the chaos I would face in less than 30 minutes, I tweeted the lady who had posted my picture along with this caption: “What an amazing photo of Liverpool taken today! (Not by me I might add, nicked off Facebook)”.

When looking back now, I can see that this picture was posted at 8.35pm on the 9th of January 2013. That’s when I realised that I had captured a little piece of gold.

I was lucky. Very lucky. When I tweeted people who had posted the picture, saying that I had taken it, they believed me. I am still unbelievably grateful that people believed me instead of questioning the possibility of me being the secret photographers no one seemed to know. 

 

From there on, the day starts to become a bit of a blur in my mind. As soon as people started crediting me for the picture and linking to my Twitter-account, I was bombarded with messages from all around the world. There were Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of followers who posted my picture and I was made aware of some of these sites over the next few days. I even trended on Twitter in Liverpool.

People were congratulating me with the fantastic capture, and they were also thanking me for sharing the magical picture.

I was over the moon about the overwhelming response across all social media platforms. For the rest of the night, and until 4 in the morning, I answered tweets. Tweets sent from people all over the world. I answered everybody personally.

 

When I woke up the next morning I had to pinch my arm. Was it really true? Did my picture go viral last night? I still couldn’t believe it – but I was due in at university for a 9am lecture, so I didn’t have much time to think. I couldn’t just take a day off.

While I was putting on make-up I received a phone call from an unknown number. It was the Liverpool Echo across the street from where I lived. They interviewed me over the phone and sent a photographer up to get a story in for the late edition of the newspaper on the 10th of January. I was barely dressed as the photographer knocked on my door. He took a few quick snaps with me and an iPad featuring the foggy Liverpool picture. 

The story even went on the front page of the newspaper only a few hours later. As the photographer left the apartment and I went out to walk to university I received the next call. It was a colleague from my paper back home, Drammens Tidende, who called and wanted to hear all about the social media storm. We talked for almost 30 minutes.

Following some hours at university the day kept rapidly changing. I got press agencies on the phone, contacting me by texts and tweets. They wanted to buy the media rights to my picture. Later on that same day, after long conversations with different teachers, I decided to go for Mercury Press. They were going to sell my picture to the press on my behalf – and we signed a contract that very same day - in my apartment.

The rest of the day went on and I had interviews non-stop for Norwegian newspapers and websites. Everybody seemed to be interested and I was overwhelmed by the massive media coverage. 

Here are links to some articles written about me that day:

The Telegraph bought my fog picture from Mercury Press and used it the following Saturday. LFC-legend Robbie Fowler quickly snapped up the picture and used it as his background on Twitter (and he still does six years later!).

The news of Fowler – or God – using my picture made the headlines again:

I also blogged about the massive media response only five days after it hit me. Here on JMU Journalism: Finding fame with one foggy photo. I have made several blog posts about the surreal day in retrospect, but this one is the final and complete edition. Written one year after it all happened.

 

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And even as I’m looking back now, six years after 'The Liverpool Fog Picture' went viral, I’m finding new articles I haven’t seen before about me and my picture. Hest.no: “Hva slags kamera bruker du?”.


Robbie Fowler is still using the picture on Twitter, and the owners of the building I used to live in have used my picture in ads, to sell apartments in the tower with the headline: Want a view like this?

Being at the right place at the right time – and taking advantage of it really does pay off. In the aftermath of ‘The Picture’ – as it’s known now – I got work experience with the Liverpool Echo photographers (really lovely guys!) and I even opened my own webshop a few months later, as people wanted to buy my picture on canvas. I have got many opportunities due to the picture and I have done what I can to make the most of them.

 

I was incredibly lucky with the picture and the publicity it got. Although I have earning money on selling the picture afterwards, I have done it simply because I still find it amusing that people want my picture in their homes. I’m so thankful to all the people who have bought copies of the picture.

 

I’m overwhelmed by all the feedback and kind comments I have received over the past years. 

I still have people congratulating me now, six years after the picture was first published. I’m amazed by the power of social media, and I have more faith in social media than ever before.

 

There are no boundaries in this world. It’s a bit scary, but also amazing seeing that a picture, like mine, can go around the world within seconds. Anyone still questioning why I want to work with social media in the future?

Thank you all so much for the support

Anything is possible – and especially in this day and age. I’m extremely happy that
I got the chance to experience my own picture going viral. It was absolute madness when it happened, but it has thought me a lot of invaluable skills – and helped me develop my ideas.

 

The picture in itself is a huge part of the reason why I got my media company, Mathilde Media, officially registered in the UK, as well as in Norway, in 2013 (and later closed down).

 

I would just like to use this opportunity to send a huge thanks to everyone who have helping me along the way, and supported me and my work. It means absolutely everything to me! Here’s the golden capture I don’t know what I’d do without.

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