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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.