My professional work
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BA (Hons) in International Journalism
Diploma in Online Marketing Certificate in Strategic Management
As of December 9th 2016 I have been a paid journalist for eight years. The reason why I am using that term is because in our first lecture at university we were asked what defines a journalist? What distinguishes a journalist from anyone writing at all?
We concluding that a journalist is someone getting paid to write.
Through the years, and along with my education, I have worked as a journalist in the printed press, online and to some extend TV and radio.
I have had a picture going viral and had the same one printed in several newspapers including The Telegraph. I have trended on Twitter and been hired to speak about the importance of social media for new startups - and as a lecture for students.
Let's start at the beginning. My first article ever published in a newspaper was printed in Drammens Tidende on September 9th in 2008. It was about a football school for kids wanting to become goal keepers. I sat up all night trying to do my very best, having no professional experience. Looking back at it now, it is spelling mistakes all over, but at that time I was still proud to have a piece published.
A few months later I signed my first contract with Tønsbergs Blad as a part of their youth department. It was a perfect opportunity for me to gain valuable skills needed in a newsroom.
As I worked for them I also started working for Strømsgodset as a journalist and photographer, alongside my high school education. While working for both the newspaper and the football club I added on an extra one; Drammens Tidende. I was actually contact by the newspaper on Twitter and asked if I was interested in freelancing for them. I could not say no to such an opportunity and went in. It was a little chat with the online chief and then I was onboard.
As I gradually started to work more and more for Drammens Tidende, I cut the string at Tønsbergs Blad in January 2011, after working there on and off for two years and seven months. I only worked for Strømsgodset for one year and four months before it was all about Drammens Tidende for me.
In Drammens Tidende I started a freelance journalist covering events over the weekend, mostly. Then I started getting shifts working for the online desk, and then later I also became their front page editor while at work. It was a great way to learn while trying out different positions in the newspaper.
In 2011 I moved to Liverpool in England to study International Journalism at Liverpool John Moores University. Being in a new country without my usual network I had to start all over. Luckily the transition went smoothly. As soon as I settled down and the university work become a routine I started to take pictures. A lot of pictures. I went around in the city centre with my camera snapping all sorts of things.
It became my favourite thing to do; exploring the world through the lense. I was not a professional, but I was taught photography at high school, and with that knowledge I tried to do my own thing.
In my second year at university I took a picture that would change everything for me. I sat at the foot end of my bed in Liverpool's tallest building, West Tower, and looked out on the fog slowly moving towards me. I snapped a few shots and ended up with a picture that would later in the evening go viral. I trended on Twitter and got the picture published in The Telegraph. You can read the full story on my magical capture by clicking here.
That one picture gave me countless of new and exciting opportunity within days. It went on the front page of the local newspaper, The Liverpool Echo, and I got work experience at the same paper in the photo department. Suddenly everybody thought of me as a professional photographer, although my wonder picture was an iPhone capture.
Over night I had people contacting me, wanting to buy the picture, giving me job opportunities and inviting me to all sorts of things. I got in touch with people linking me to Liverpool Football Club and in a few weeks I was hired as a professional photographer to document official Liverpool Legends events hosted by 5Times, The Liverpool Former Players Association. It was a rid of a lifetime. I was placed in a completely new environment and working alongside lifelong legends from the football world.
I also started working for a photographer in Liverpool, being his photo technician at Premier League and Champions League matches. It was a fantastic experience both in terms of the intensity and the work pressure of editing and distributing pictures to the british press and to agencies - but also the experience of visiting new football grounds and meeting people I otherwise would never have met.
In the aftermath of the picture success I started my own company, Mathilde Media. I had to, to be able to sell my picture printed on canvas legally in England. It taught me a lot about new start-ups and the concept of running a business.
Social media became important to me and I started blogging and using all social channels to expand my business. After having set up the company I was asked to be a guest speaker at a seminar for new start-ups in Liverpool. It was a very exciting experience and I will definitely be doing more of that in the future.
I finished my bachelor degree in International Journalism in May of 2014, and graduated in July.
While at the end of my university degree I applied for jobs to return to Norway. I decided it was time to try something new, yet again. I applied for a summer internship at VG and I was lucky enough to get it. I worked there over the summer, and never left. You can read more about that experience here!
Below you will find some sample pictures taken by me, mostly during my time in Liverpool.
