A journey from meat packing to Ph.D. to entrepreneur and artist
I believe you can do what you want! Well not really everything but you can really get a long way with hard work and dedication.
In my younger days I was drifting along for many years not really knowing how to put up with what seemed like a very long life. Well that changed after a few years in the meat packing industry in Denmark — yes, I was packing that lovely bacon most of the world love and is the national dish in Denmark!
Today I live a different life
Today I have two companies and live a completely different life. I’m a designer, a biologist and a photographer.
Not two days are the same and I have always a ton of “work” in the pile. I put work in exclamation marks because today work is often fun and I’m just doing what I love doing. One day I’m designing a website for the launch of a new product from our design company Nordic Appeal. Then the next day I’m walking around in the wilderness of Denmark getting images for our photographic business Foto Factory.
Photography
My big passion is photography. I started to pick up photograhy during my Ph.D. in Biology. I have been working in some pristine places like Southeast Asia, Australia and Greenland. Traveled to conferences and workshops all over Europe, Singapore and the States. More and more I carried the camera and used the camera in the spare time or when ever there was an opportunity for a great image.
I was once set to do research in southern Greenland and had the American fine art photographer Rachel Sussman along to show her the old and interesting Lichens. I enjoyed the few days and the insight into Rachel’s life as a photographer and getting knowledge about her project: world’s oldest continuously living organisms. I got a glimpse into a world of fine art photography that I would love to be a part of.
The love
After I finished my Ph.D. in Copenhagen I enden up in Edinburgh, Scotland and that changed everything! I simply fell in love in the great landscapes, the big mountains, the beautiful coast line and pristine woodland. I was sold and after two years as a Carlsberg Research Fellow at Edinburgh University I started our two companies with my Partner.
I have never looked back, even though it’s been hard to convert the ideas and products into money to make a living. We are surviving and it is getting better and better. The best part is that even though I work long hours, I enjoy most days and have fun doing what I do now.
Martin Bay
