Ängel - GBG
One of the latest photo jobs I have done is for the drag and electropunk duo Ängel when they arranged Grisfesten aka. The Pigparty, at Kajskjul 46 on November 6th, 2024. I have photographed Nino(Nicky) and Sam (of Finland) with iPhone 14, and used a bicycle lamp to supplement the stage light from the front. This is actually my favorite method and tool to work with photography today. The phone that is so often with me, has become an extension of me. It allows me to more seamlessly approach people and be more mobile and intuitive when I work.
Princess of Wielderness
I met Princess or Tony Andersson as he is also called during a project assignment that I had in Hällefors Municipality 2019-2021. Tony worked at the recreation center where my assignment was. At the time, he was a rather shy and small person, with a longing in his eyes that was difficult to put your finger on. We have remained friends throughout all these years and about 3 years ago Tony came out as a trans woman. Only since then has Tony grown more and more and dared to take up space. Since the first day I met Tony he has felt like a family member, to the point that I sometimes say that he is the father I always wished I had.
I promised Tony to do a princess photo shoot as soon as we met again after the happy news about his courage to come out as Queer. For the photo shoot we went out to Svenstjärn outside Hällefors, where Tony is responsible for a wind shelter. Tony is also a dedicated outdoorsman, hence the name of his inner woman: Princess of Wielderness. I have styled and made up Tony, helped choose a dress. The photo session was done with an iPhone 12 and a bicycle lamp in twilight light.
Louise Halvardsson
Mormordikter, directed by: Ingrid Nilsson
In the winter of 2022, I was commissioned by my colleague and friend Louise Halvardsson to photograph promo material for her self-written performance, directed by Ingrid Nilsson. My assignment was to capture parts of the scenes and characters that Louise would play, including her Småland grandmother and her grandmother's cousin. The play was about the misunderstandings that often occur in generational shifts, in this case, between grandmother and granddaughter.
During the photo session, Ingrid directed Louise and I photographed the scenes in the performance in turn. In this session, I used a Sony digital system camera purchased in 2021. In addition to this, I have rigged lighting and scenography, as well as made posters and social media-adapted advertising. As well as editing images and the poster in PS Express on my mobile phone.
Mullsjö Folkhögskola
Black and White Photography and Snapshots
It all started with black and white photography and it's technology, where I was fascinated by the unpredictable graininess of Tri X film. I loved shooting in dark environments at ISO 1600 and copying my photographs onto semi-gloss Pearl paper, to enhance the graininess of the Tri X negatives' unpredictability. The images here are hand-copied from the original. I used to take a lot of snapshots in the city and in different environments. I mainly focused on people and encounters that arose in the unpredictability. Below I tell you about each individual encounter.
The images were taken with Tri X film and were copied by hand onto Pearl glazed paper. I photographed the images with an iPhone 14 and edited them in Photoshop to try to bring out the characteristics of the original photo. The pearl shine was therefore retained and could not be edited away.
The Sleezeband Crash Diet
I often went out into the city to take snapshots of people and the city with my Minolta XG-1 camera loaded with a fresh roll of Tri X film. One day I ran into two people who looked like they were hungover on a staircase at the end of Kungsgatan of Gothenburg. I was captivated by the contrasts between the black of the leather jackets, the blond hair, the smeared makeup and the fierce look. The first picture was taken before I asked permission. The others were taken with the boys' permission, where the singer of the sleeze band Crash Diet, who I later found out was the singer, expresses his feelings about the day. A few months after the pictures were taken, I found out that the singer, whose name I never learned, had committed suicide.
Ditte
I met Ditte inside the Botanical Garden in Helsinki on my journey in search of photographing my roots in Finland. I secretly photographed her things on the table strategically at first so that she wouldn't notice anything and then snapped another picture of her sitting and eating, before she noticed anything. In picture three, I have the camera on my stomach and snap a picture as we start talking to each other. Ditte was Finnish-Swedish and had come to the botanical garden to have a coffee alone. At first, Ditte was confused about what had just happened, but finally, when I explained who I was and why, she softened and let me take a portrait of her. Finally, I asked Ditte if I could take a portrait of her most beloved body part. Ditte chose her hands. I am of course aware that this method of photography is not ethical today, but these photos were taken during a time when the same regulations as today did not apply. I got permission from Ditte to use the pictures, as did the guys in Crash Diet.
Raymond Patterson
Raymond Patterson was the younger brother of Floyd Patterson, an American world-famous boxer who, among other things, competed in some legendary matches with the Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson in 1960-1961. Raymond later got Alzheimer's disease, just like his brother Floyd, but that didn't stop him from being an extremely happy, bright and positive person. Raymond was best friends with my grandmother, when they both lived in Torslanda. He used to visit several days a week to massage my grandmother who had had rheumatism since she was 40 years old, in exchange for food, coffee, cookies and company. One afternoon I followed them downstairs to the massage table and took some photos with Tri X film and my Minolta camera. Raymond explained how much he loves massaging and always told the same story about how he had won over Floyd in boxing several times, as he was also Floyd's sparring partner. Raymond has been dead for a year now and never became as famous as his brother Floyd, despite being the American amateur boxing champion for 2 years in a row. He won in 52 districts, two years in a row, without losing a single match. This also made him a professional boxer. Raymond still lives on in the memory of his grandmother, me and the family. He is greatly missed.
The Photo project Roots
During the project “to make a photo trip” during my studies at Mullsjö Folkhögskola, I chose to go to Finland to visit my father and siblings. I brought several rolls of Tri X film and my Minolta camera with me on this trip to photograph my roots. My mother and I moved to Sweden in 1988, to escape my father who at the time had an alcohol problem. Several years after this, my father had created two half-siblings for me that I wanted to get to know. I often visited Finland on holidays and the like to enable a relationship with my siblings. I remember that at that time and when these pictures were taken (Christmas holidays 2005) I felt a great sadness in seeing that my siblings had such a close and nice relationship with our father. However, my father has been sober for 17+ years now and my sister and brother and I try to keep in regular contact.
The Punk Band Hata Katten
Last three pictures in the slideshow from the abstract picture The Kiss, which changed the way I saw the world through photography. The last two pictures were taken at a house party at my friends' house in the punk band Hata Katten, who at the time being challenged the Gothenburg punk scene with their at least 30 cm high mohawks and their feminist demeure. These pictures were taken with my Minolta camera containing Tri X Film in 1600 ISO