ONE FRAME DEEP: Mathias Nesvold Bjørndahl

Currently based in Stavanger, Norway, Mathias Nesvold Bjørndahl, is an analogue focused photographer working primarily with 35mm film, moving between street, portrait, and nature photography with a calm, deliberate approach.

There’s a strong consistency to Mathias’s work. He has a clear sensitivity for quiet moments, rendered with a cinematic, almost melancholic warmth. His photographs don’t demand attention; they invite it, slowly.

I first encountered Mathias’s work after briefly meeting him on a photowalk in Stavanger, guided by Bjørn Joachimsen, a Focus Nordic Ambassador. We exchanged Instagram accounts, and this image caught my attention right away while scrolling through his feed.

*image from @mnblinkskudd Instagram account

What they chose to include

An interior scene, likely from a café. Window, seating, and a beautiful interplay of texture and light, with the privacy glass dividing the space.

These layers, glass, bench, street, create a natural depth, pulling the eye gently through the frame rather than pushing it.

The composition is built on restraint. Horizontal lines dominate, the table edge, the bench, the window frame and the building outside.

The candle is small, but it anchors the foreground. It`s not lit up, and that matters. It offer a story, suggestion, rather than a statement. It is precisely placed, given room to breathe, just brushing the edge of the shadow cast from outside.

When I spoke with Mathias, he mentioned how pleased he was with the red pop of color on the candle, and I couldn’t agree more. Appreciate the details.

What They Chose to Exclude

What’s missing is just as important as what’s shown here.

There is a strong sense of solitude suggested, but not loneliness. The muted colors, the soft textures. This whole scene carries an Edward Hopper vibe, stillness, but without tension. No unease, no narrative pressure. Just a moment without explanation.

There is no coffee cup, no phone, no jacket on the bench. There’s no dramatic action, no peak moment. These absences remove distraction. By excluding the obvious story, the photograph leaves room for feeling.

I think for me personally what drew me in wasn’t the objects, but the pause between them. The sense that someone just left, or hasn’t arrived yet. Paul McCartney talks about this when composing music, it is the pause between every note that create magic. This is exactly what im feeling here. The value in the “in between” moments.


Why It Works

Light is treated as a subject, not an effect. Every object feels intensional, nothing feels staged.

The outside is present, but subdued, reinforcing the interior calm.

What stands out, is the way lines connect, the edge of the privacy glass inside continues seamlessly into the façade of the building outside. The shadow line meets the seating with precision, and especially in the triangular shadow on the bench, which becomes a subject of its own.

Even the curtains in the background contribute, adding rhythm and balance rather than distraction.

Mathias choice of framing into the shadow side creates form and 3D pop.


Final Thoughts

This is the kind of a frame that doesn`t announce itself. It waits. And if you meet it at the right pace, it gives you something rare, a reminder that stillness is not empty, and most important; that quiet moments often carry the most weight.

Photographer: Mathias Nesvold Bjørndahl
Instagram: @mnblinkskudd

*images from @mnblinkskudd Instagram account