The story so far
Circa 2007
Sweden.
In the beginning, there was Sweden. Jakob and Cole met and connected at business school over spreadsheets and strong beer, but not photography. The friends both graduated and Cole moved back to Vancouver, Canada.
2009
Seeing the world, telling stories, and making people happy.
Just like good business people, they built a case for what to do with their lives, boiling it down to: Seeing the world, telling stories, and making people happy. And so, Nordica Photography was born.
2009
Jakob joins Cole in Vancouver, Canada, living in Cole’s closet.
2010
Honing the craft.
Cole and Jakob were fully committed and full-time from day one. It was ‘learn as much as they can’, anywhere anytime. The Winter Olympics, headshots, products, fashion, weddings – point, shoot and discover – it was all about honing the craft. No gig was too small. No hand was left unshook.
2010
A fall wedding in the British Columbia Interior: the tipping point. All the hard work pays off, they are wedding photographers
2011
Momentum.
The momentum started to build with Nordica’s first destination wedding in Mexico. It was quickly followed by going to Iceland, twice. The contrast, adventure and satisfaction with visually telling those stories made it abundantly clear this was exactly what Cole and Jakob had been hoping for.
2011
Eager to pass on what they’ve learnt, Jakob and Cole hold their first one-to-one pro workshop in Canada and their first group workshop in the UK.
2012
The adventure continues.
More adventures, and more stories. Jakob lived out of a suitcase all over Europe and Africa, capturing weddings and immersing himself in the different locales, to weave distinctive narratives for each couple. With 50% of the weddings being destination shoots, Jakob moved back to Sweden to make the traveling more manageable.
2012
Nordica is named Rising Stars of Photography by Rangefinder Magazine. Cole keeps his ego in check.
2013
The return to Sweden.
Jakob and Cole began receiving invitations to speak at photographer conferences. The talks remain great ways to connect with other professionals and share better techniques to get the story right. At this point, 75% of the weddings were destination shoots. Cole decided to make Sweden his home base as well.
2013
So far, Cole and Jakob have shot on every continent save one. They’re looking forward to their first wedding on Antarctica.
2014
Settled but not stationary.
The pair settled into Scandinavian life, Jakob in Stockholm and Cole a couple of hours north of there in Gävle, enjoying time with their families when not on the go.
2014
Nordica is named Scandinavian Wedding Photographers of the Year, an honour for the two.
2015
Adding new focus.
Cole and Jakob founded ‘Way Up North’, the first wedding photography conference in Northern Europe, putting together a stellar line-up of internationally renowned wedding shooters. The overwhelming success of the conference encouraged Jakob and Cole to organize the second Way Up North in the eternal city, Rome, and third again in Stockholm in 2016.
2015
Nordica was honoured as Wedding Photographer of the Year in Sweden.
2016
Fujifilm X-Photographers.
In 2016, Nordica started a cooperation with Fujifilm and were announced one of few official Fujifilm X-Photographers in Scandinavia. An honour for Jakob and Cole to be working with one of the biggest and most well-known photography brands in the world.
2016
A year into the collaboration with Fujifilm, Jakob and Cole traveled to Rome together with the film team at Maru Films to create a promotional video for a new and revolutionary medium format camera from Fuji. Watch the film here.
The journey by the numbers
Jakob 652,860 km to 77 locations
Cole 562,304 km to 69 locations
8,000+ email recipients
700+ blog posts
9,000+ comments
FOUR consecutive World’s Best of the Best
from Junebug Weddings (2013-2016)
300+ happy couples
