North | South

Every so often, we come across a project that feels in complete alignment with Glass. In 2025, we stumbled on North | South and were instantly intrigued: two photographers, two hemispheres, one shared curiosity.

What began as a simple exchange between Matt and Emma has grown into a gorgeous, thought-provoking series. This on-going collaboration feels more than worthy of a proper spotlight. A fair warning, this longer than usual. Given how important creativity and collaboration are to our global community, we hope you don't mind.

We don't think you will.

Let's go!

Emma and Matt first “met” on Glass. They quickly formed a fast friendship, despite living on opposite sides of the world. Emma Roos Frändås is a photographer based out of Sweden, who delights in discovery. “When I photograph, I forget about time and space. Photography makes me slow down and become fully present in the moment.” The medium has instilled in her a sense of awe and an enthusiastic desire to explore.

Matt Buchlak is in Australia. His connection to photography goes back to his teenage years. Having only had point and shoot cameras, the results from his brother’s brand new Canon DSLR were stunning. “For the first time… I could see depth in photos and properly rendered colours and that blew me away. I realised that I could not only capture memories, but I could capture the feeling of that memory by playing with shutter speed and aperture.” He's been hooked since.

In the beginning, Emma and Matt bonded over a common point of view. “We both love minimalism, the moon, soft light, and quiet moments.” Their photographic styles are very similar. Differences are subtle, rooted in “small choices and personal intuition [rather] than big stylistic contrasts.” As they shared work, ideas started to form. Curiosity took hold. “Matt left a comment on a photo I had taken of the moon. He told me he had taken a similar photo the same day, but that the moon was facing the opposite direction.” What else was different? What else was the same? A handful of comments and one FaceTime later, North | South came to life.

Even with cohesive styles, working together helps them see their own image differently. They've found inspiration in each other's techniques and processes. “When we work on our project, one of us often takes the first photo, and the other tries to match it. That means thinking carefully about proportions, lines, balance, and perspective. It has trained my eye in a completely new way and made me more aware of composition and visual harmony in my own solo work,” says Emma.

For Matt, a large part of photography is in the edits, with an equal love for both taking the image, and processing for final sharing. Matt has found this collaboration positively affects his editing. “[In] the photo of us looking out over our cities Gothenburg & Melbourne…the photos are edited so the colours in the sky match each other, which took a surprising amount of work. I’m constantly thinking about how I would edit a photo while I’m taking it and knowing more about what’s possible with editing helps.”

For Emma, this creative partnership only strengthens her inquisitive mind. “I love learning new things about Australia. Even though our countries are both Western, there are still so many differences. I was especially blown away when I saw Matt’s Christmas tree. I didn’t expect it to be so different from ours.”

Matt echos her enthusiasm. “Knowing someone who lives through really defined seasons is amazing. In Melbourne the seasons of the year are way less defined because in summer we can still get cold days and in winter it doesn’t snow in the city. In fact, seeing snow in Australia is always a gigantic mission because you have to drive way out of the city and into the mountains.”

Collaboration with another photographer can feel challenging. Often though, perceived impediments turn out just fine. "I’ve realized having a 10 hour difference in timezones isn’t actually much of a big deal, " says Matt. "When you meet someone with a shared interest like photography and decide to collaborate, the barriers just fall away and the whole process just works itself out." And, the rewards are worth the work. Emma says the series has made her fall even more in love with photography. "Sharing this passion with someone brings me so much joy, and it reminds me why I started in the first place."

Despite humble beginnings, North | South has transformed into a visual study on perspective. It's grown to be an illustration of similarities transcending any distance, and an example of how curiosity can create meaningful work, in addition to fun, creative friendships.

“We hope viewers can feel the joy of creating something together. Photography is always fun, but doing it with someone who shares the same passion multiplies that joy.”

We’ll leave you with one final piece of wisdom from Matt & Emma. Some times the thing you want to do is as simple as just reaching out:

“Don’t be afraid to ask.”