“I want to go on the fringe of society and see what happens there. It’s often these people who have a story that we need to hear because maybe we don’t hear these stories so often.” We met Danish photographer Marie Hald (b. 1987) for a generous and personal talk about her works, career and artistic mission. “I knew from very early on that I wanted to be a photographer.” Hald was very young when she got accepted into the prestigious Danish School of Media and Journalism to study documentary photography. “I really like images that are not staged and are very close.” Hald describes herself as a storyteller who primarily works in reportage series and portraits, bringing focus to strong women and marginalized groups. “We have come to a place in history, where my images of sexworkers and fat-activists are allowed to hang next to the kings and queens.” Marie Hald was born in 1987 in Aalborg, Denmark and studied photojournalism at The Danish School of Media and Journalism and later at The International Center of Photography, ICP in New York City. Marie Hald has won a World Press Photo Award, The Danish Picture of the Year and many other international prizes for her long-term project documenting the life of a Danish mother working in the sex industry. Hald has exhibited at museums such as Haus der Photographie der Deichtorhallen, Hamburg to Nobel’s Peace Center in Oslo. In 2018, she exhibited her first solo exhibition, ‘A New Me’ 2018, at Fotografiska, The Swedish Museum of Photography and has been featured as one of the six new talents worldwide discovered by the World Press Photo Foundation. In 2022/23, she published the book ‘FEMININ’ and opened the solo exhibition ‘Marie Hald – Exposed’ at The Museum of National History, Denmark. Marie Hald was interviewed by Helle Pagter in April 2023. The interview took place in Marie Hald’s studio in Copenhagen, Denmark.