You will probably have heard the word ‘Hygge’ (pronounced hoo-gah) floating around over the last few months or so. Some of you may already have Hygge down to a T, but the majority of you may still be stuck scratching your head thinking what on earth this Hygge malarkey is?
Everywhere you look the definition of exactly what Hygge is differs slightly, but most commonly Hygge is translated into English as “cosiness”. There are loads of great articles online and many books you can read which will help you understand more about The Danish way of living that is Hygge. Here are a few of our favourites:
Hygge in Stock Photography
We gave a little shout out to Hygge in our , and with the growing trend in the UK (and the rest of the world it seems) for Hygge becoming bigger and bigger, it is no surprise it’s beginning to sneak its way into Stock Photography. Already on ڹϳover the last couple of months and weeks, we have noticed more and more contributors starting to add tags to their images such as ‘Hygge’, ‘Hyggelig’ and ‘Cosiness’.
You may have noticed large companies clocking onto the Hygge trend and incorporating this not only into their products but also the imagery they use for their marketing and advertising campaigns.
Clothing brand Mint Velvet has ; from soft comfy clothes to beautiful candles – not only have they got the products themselves in line with Hygge but the imagery they are using to advertise them is also extremely Hyggelig.
As you’ve probably seen, having just had Christmas pass us by, we were all subject to a large number of television advertising campaigns which harnessed elements of Hygge. One ad that I believe had Hyggelig at the centre of it was . It shows a family turn an abandoned old building in to a warm, cosy space filled with family, love, and laughter. See how many Hygge elements you can spot in this ad. I’ll give you a clue, there may be a few candles here and there…
What I have done here is pick out a few of the big elements of Hygge which would be great to see more of in stock photography as the trend continues to grow.
Light
Light is one of the most important, if not the most important element of Hygge. An easy way to get the lighting of Hygge into your photography is to incorporate candles, lots and lots of candles. Candles create great, warm, soft light in photographs and are a really simple way to bring a bit of hyggelig to an image.
In ‘The Little Book of Hygge’ author Meik Wiking gives a great tip to help create a ‘cosy’ feel to your images using several small lamps to light an image, rather than one large one. This will give you several small pockets of light around a room.
Food and Drink
Closely following light in level of importance in Hygge imagery is food & drink, more specifically hot drinks and cake, making this possibly my favourite element of the Hygge way of life. Hot drinks, cake, pasties, and stews are all foods which scream comfort and are very hyggelig.
Some of the Dane’s favourite hot drinks to include in your images are hot chocolate, tea, mulled wine and, topping the list, coffee. When it comes to sweet treats the more sinful the better, so images of hearty chocolate brownies, sticky cinnamon buns, warm apple crumble and custard etc. are going to be ticking all the Hygge boxes.
Fredagshygge (Fredashooga)
This is the type of Hygge you have towards the end of the week, on a Friday or Saturday winding down with family or friends. Spending time with loved ones is another important element of Hygge.
So how do you get Fredagshygge into your stock photography? Images of families or friends spending time together, playing board games, eating a meal around the dinner table, laughing and enjoying each other’s company, or snuggling up on the sofa together to watch a film are all great examples of Fredagshygge.
Tip: More and more customers are after authenticity within family and lifestyle shots, so creating unfiltered ‘in the moment’ content is going to be on trend with the demand from customers at the moment.
ØԻ岹ⲵ (Sundashooga)
ØԻ岹ⲵ is all about taking time to out for yourself; nesting down in a snug corner to read your favourite book, listening to some nice music, drinking tea, going for a long country walk all wrapped up warm layers etc. – basically all the things we never seem to have the time to do but are important in order to wind down and relax.
Getting images of people relaxing and enjoying some “me time” is in line with Hygge. Adding blankets, cushions, fluffy socks, and loungewear are just a few things you can incorporate into your stock photographs to bring a little ØԻ岹ⲵ to them.
Hopefully you’ll feel inspired to get out there and begin adding some Hygge to your own photography as we would love to see more of this in our growing collection on Alamy.