Lessons

So I had prepared a blog post for today. I sat down an hour or so ago and wrote it down on a piece of paper using a pencil. It's new years eve 2009 and there I was writing with pencil and paper. I don't have to state the obvious but I will; it felt old school.

Then when I sat down in front of the computer I started typing something different instead. I was writing about the omnipresent compilations of list that states what was best or worst about the decade that is about to end.

Both manuscripts felt a bit contrived. So I decided to skip both.

The decade is coming to an end. 2010 is soon here. These last ten years I have gone from being a seventeen year old boy to a twentyseven year old boy. Hopefully I have learnt some good lessons whilst. And hopefully I will use those lessons whilst I go about creating my future.

One lesson that will become my new years resolution is simply to write my friends more often. Friendships need tending no matter how far the distance nor the time passed since last time we met.

I hope you've had a good 2009 and that you go about creating a better 2010!


And with that I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Now where is that glass of cava that needed my attention?

Test Drive

I've been playing around a bit with my new toy and I am quite pleased with it. It doesn't make any funny noises or anything. It almost feel gentle. It isn't often I feel gentle when I take photographs but maybe with this one I will. The shot is from a little walk around Gothenburg I had with a good friend of mine some weekends ago. We had just seen a vodou exhibition and I must say the dolls we saw there must have been used as inspiration by many a filmmaker. I vaguely remember something similar in i.e. Kaze no tani no Naushika by the amazing Miyazaki.We came upon Järntorget in Gothenburg. A place that is in many ways central for my experiences in Gothenburg. This time I saw the sky and the roof of this building was a pretty decent match. So I shot this pretty generic image. Apparently I need to figure out the double/triple/quadruple exposure function. Anyway, I think my new toy will be a good companion to me.

Good night!


Sorry for the absolutely raw scan here. I haven't done anything to it and I really
should clean the scanner before I do anything else.

An End And A Beginning

So the day came. My internship at Fokus is over. It ends not with a bang but with a whimper as T.S Eliot wrote. But not really. To be honest, I'm kinda fond of what I've achieved during my internship there. I think I even managed to make some decent photos while I was at it. I know I also learned a lot from the people who work there. It is a fine gathering of minds and hearts in those small rooms at Wallingatan in Stockholm and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them. I also look forward to the opportunities that will arise in the future with them and every one else who is willing to throw some assignments my way. So today ends my life as a photo intern at Fokus. Now a new beginning, or soon anyway. I've got to go back for yet another month of school before I'm completely done. Then of to the far east I go. A new and challenging part of my life is about to start. Damn, soon I have to start make a living for real. No more student loans except for the one I immediately have to start repaying as soon schools out.

So back to the bang. Tomorrow, this years last issue of Fokus will come out and in it is a reportage on Christmas shows that I've shot. And for those who like to see even more photos from this slightly weird holiday tradition there will be some fifty photos on the website as well. So the last reportage for me this year will, at least quantitatively, be a bang. The quality of it, well that is up to you guys to decide.


I'll post a link here tomorrow.

Here is a cover and another picture from Fokus that I have not shown here yet.

Cecilia Malmström the new Swedish EU commisioner. Shot at
the press conference where she was named.


Another shot from the story about kids who society places under its "care".
Max Calner photographed in Örebro a few weeks back.

One More Month In The Life And Adventures of Saab Automobiles

So they landed another thirty-one more days. Who knows what will happen but the clock is definitely ticking. For the people in Trollhättan it is probably more like a time-bomb than a clock though. I have so far heard that somewhere between 8-15 000 job opportunities are on the line if GM close down Saab. Or maybe not on the line but are actually lost might also be a correct interpretation. I'm not much in to numbers though (earlier this evening I was in favour of my own position on an issue, lets just say that I lost with the score 400 million against 2,5 to 6 billion, I leave it up to you to guess what the topic was).

These last few weeks have been quite hectic for me. I'm happy about it, because it has meant that I've gotten to to alot of fun stuff. I've been underground in some weird places. I've been back stage with a bunch of old artists, and I got to do the small story about Trollhättan during two hectic, interesting and funny days. Well, not to piss the fine people of Trollhättan of, the funny thing was not your situation but that I got to work with what I knew was a fine writer but who also turned out to be a great guy.

Thomas, I've allready started lobbying for more stories that we can do toghether!

So here are the tear sheets and obviously if you know Swedish you can read the story at Fokus not to mention that you can see plenty more images if you click the image on the top.





Sorry about that blank page. Ads have to go somewhere in the magazine but not neccesarily on my blog.

Oh dear!

“Look, the photographs say, this is what it’s like. This is what war does. And that, that is what it does, to. War tears, rends. War rips open, eviscerates. War scorches. War dismembers. War ruins.”
S. Sontag, Regarding the pains of others.







Then on the other hand Sontag also spoke about compassion fatigue amongst other problems surrounding the representation of violence and suffering. Another term for compassion fatigue might be odearism:




To be honest, Goya's etchings Los Desastres de la Guerra were made in the early 19th century and still they move me more than anything I've seen in today's media. To be honest, if I feel more looking at 2oo year old etchings of suffering than I do from looking at modern photo journalistic depictions of it. That either says something about me or about the modern representation of suffering. My biased guess is on the latter since I don't think it is that much wrong with me.

Taking a step away from my own egocentrical self for a bit. What does this call for? Can we do anything about it? My own opinion is that it calls for more subjectivy within the field of documentary photography. Firstly, Goya must have had to look at or imagine the horrors he depicted. After that he must have spent what I guess is quite some time sketching and later etching these drawings of intricate scenes of suffering. Neverthelss it was not at the push of a button nor was it any removed objective mind who created these images. It was someone who at length spent time dwelling on these horrors who must have created this.

Sometimes, when looking at moderns depictions of war, I feel a kind of kinship between Goya's Los Desastres de la Guerra and Nachtwey's Inferno. Not only for the choice of subject nor for the artistry of its creators. However, just as the work of Goya points towards an extended time spent contemplating these horrors, such contemplation of misery is found in the compelation of horrors that is Nachtwey's Inferno. I have yet to sift through that book in one go. I hope I never will be able to.




A friend said to me earlier this evening that he doesn't often walk away from the content of this blog feeling happy. So this is something else...or on the other hand maybe not: