Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography titled, My Struggle. The books, written in response to his father’s death, have been translated into 22 languages and have become a worldwide phenomenon. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. “The books don't live up to the hype,” he says. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.

Pictures of the Year International
Year: 2016
Place: First
Category: Multimedia Photographer of the Year

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism
Year: 2016
Place: Third
Category: Feature Multimedia Package

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism
Year: 2016
Place: Third
Category: Multimedia Portfolio

The goal of this production was to make a short film about Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard for the Wall Street Journal Magazine’s annual Innovator Awards. The production needed to illuminate both Knausgaard’s literary work as well as his thoughts on writing and his own success.

The difficulty in creating this project was our limited access to the subject. After a brief interview, the crew had less than a 30 minutes with Knausgaard to film him working in his studio.

Fortunately, Andrew Michael Ellis, MediaStorm’s Director of Photography, was cognisant of this and worked to capture a variety of camera angles so that there was enough diverse footage to construct the film.

The films were premiered at The Wall Street Journal Magazine’s fifth annual Innovator Awards on November 4, 2015 and were released online the following day.

With five global editions spanning 62 countries, WSJ. Magazine—which publishes 12 issues a year—is The Wall Street Journal's luxury-lifestyle publication dedicated to the power and passions of the Journal's readership.