En hemmapappafotografs bekännelser

Vid världens ände

fotografhalmstad — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:59:58 +0000

Longyearbyen är ingen vacker by. Det är skräpigt, hus och byggnader ett sammelsurium av hightechdesignade rymdskepp (Universitetet Unis) och hotell av drivved (Mary Anns polarrigg, där jag sitter och skriver just i detta nu). Och överallt ett fint täcke av koldamm. Hade det inte varit för kolbrytningen hade det sannolikt inte funnits några människor alls här, förutom kanske en och annan norrskensforskare. Nu bor ett par tusen här, förmodligen i ett av världens mest multikulturella sammhällen sett till sin storlek. Kan du bara försörja dig får nämligen vem som helst flytta hit. Blir du arbetslös, gammal, sjuk eller bara missköter dig i största allmänhet är det enkel biljett härifrån som gäller.
Svalbard med sina tre samhällen är verkligen utkastat vid civilisationens yttre gräns. Naturen är oförlåtande, vilket de fastboende gärna berättar om. En påstruken herre frös fast i isen ute i fjorden när han av outgrundlig anledning gett sig ut där mitt i natten och tidvattnet drog in. En annan vaknade i hyttan de lånat av att en isbjörn var på väg in genom fönstret. Lyckligtvis hade han en yxa inom räckhåll och gav nallen ett hugg över skallen vilket fick honom att surmulet backa ut igen. Andra har inte haft samma tur, och senast i fjol blev en 17-åring dödad och hans tre-fyra kompisar svårt skadade av en isbjörn när de var ute och campade och inte fått ordning på isbjörnsväkteriet. Så fort man rör sig utanför bygränsen är beväpning ett måste, för björn kan dyka upp var som helst, när som helst. Ja för ett par år sedan klev en kvinna nästan i famnen på en rackare som lagt sig för att vila. Var? Alldeles utanför knuten på hotellet där jag sitter och skriver…

För min och kollega Karins del har det dock inte blivit mycket till utflykter i det vilda. Hela veckan är fullbokad med intervjuer och reportage. Igår träffade vi Viljar Hanssen, en av de AUF:are som blev skjuten men överlevde Utöya och imorron väntar Spetsbergen Maraton.
Nu, mera jobb!

Nu börjar den

fotografhalmstad — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:39:23 +0000

ja bröllopssäsongen alltså. Och nyss skrev jag ett långt och mycket läsvärt inlägg om helgens övningar, som helt och hållet gått i arbetets tecken. Men, så skulle Nova i säng och när jag kom tillbaka till datorn hade firefox-skitmögwebläsaren hängt sig och hela harangen är för evigt försvunnen eftersom jag obetänksamt nog inte tryckt på publicera. I sammandrag, eftersom jag inte orkar skriva om: Lördag: årets första bröllopsfotouppdrag med fina brudparet Tobias och Amalia. Vädret stod oss i vanlig ordning bi, vilket jag förstås tackar för. Här följer ett smakprov. Innan jag hunnit hämta andan från bröllopet for jag vidare till Dormer och hotell tylösand, där företagets 150-årsgille skulle dokumenteras. Thomas Petersson dubbeljobbade han med. Först gisledagarna och sen dormer tools, och vi fick en trevlig pratstund innan han en timme försenad fick äntra scenen.
Ja, så typ.

Klicka här för bildspel

Nova badar, pappa plåtar.

fotografhalmstad — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:59:50 +0000

Att fotografera sånt som inte finns

fotografhalmstad — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:14:27 +0000

Som fotograf händer det emellanåt att man får i uppdrag att bildsätta något som inte går att fånga på bild. Låter det svårt? Ja, det är det också. Ibland får man några dagar på sig att tänka ut hur detta osynliga ska omsättas i ett par dussin megapixlar, andra gånger förväntas kreativiteten rusa till inom loppet av några minuter. Ibland lyckas man skapa en känsla i bilden som förmedlar det den tillhörande texten berättar om, andra gånger får man vara glad om det blir en snygg, blickfångande bild utan några andra förtjänster än en snygg yta.
Dagens Arbete är en tidning som satsar mycket på den fotografiska bilden, och någon av redaktörerna där hör av sig vill man förstås anstränga sig lite extra. De senaste gångerna har det handlat om anställda som blivit illa behandlade av sin arbetsgivare och berättar sin historia anonymt. Kvällstidningsklichén är ju annars ett kort taget bakifrån, gärna med en kapuschong uppfälld över den anonyma skallen. Skittråkigt.
Den här gången handlade jobbet om en tjej som råkat illa ut, men fick hjälp av facket (surprise!). Tjejen ville inte vara med alls på bild, så det fick bli på hennes ombudsman istället. Ett dunkelt förhandlingsrum och en rasterförsedd blixt i fejset så blev det väl något slags känsla åt rätt håll i alla fall. Tror jag.

Imorron plåtar jag snillrika uppfinningar på högskolan här i stan.

Making history

fotografhalmstad — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:10:27 +0000

The day before yesterday, tuesday 15th, a whole bunch of photographers, all over the world, turned their cameras on themselves, documenting their everyday life in a project called Aday. The resulting images will be saved for future research. A few years ago a similar project was held in Sweden, and that time I had lots of photos planned, from dawn to dusk, and managed to get a couple of shots in the book that was the end result. This time I didn´t have a clue as to what to shoot, but teamed up with my friend Magnus Persson for some street photography in Halmstad. We had a couple of pleasant hours downtown, but the pictures that came out of it, at least on my part, will certainly not end up in any books. I guess it´s hard to focus at shooting pictures when you´re visiting with someone. It´ll be very exciting to see what other photographers from around the globe has captured once the book and exhibition is out, whenever that will be….

Inte autofokus direkt

fotografhalmstad — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:45:24 +0000

ja kolla själva!

GP action

fotografhalmstad — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:46:47 +0000

Working with Greenpeace often means long hours, meeting people from all over Europe, and usually lots of action. As their work usually involves large corporations getting pissed and calling the police, everything is kept very secret with much attention to security and staying low profile up until it´s time for the protest action, whatever that might be. Sometimes it´s very elegant, like in Copenhagen in December when two welldressed and well spoken Greenpeace employees lured a whole bunch of oilpeople from their meeting about drilling for oil in the Arctic to a Greenpeace presentation on the same subject. The GP people went on for half an hour, talking about the risks involved in Arctic exploration, no objections heard from the crowd, not even when the GP-logo was shown at the end! Other times the GP protests are a lot more hands on so to speak, like this time when GP activists intercepted and boarded finnish icebreaker Nordica several times, far from land in the middle of the night. The Nordica is on its way to help Shell find oil. Where? In the Arctic of course!
This time I was part of documenting the GP protests outside Gedser in Denmark. Secret as always, I didn´t know what anything was about, when I got on the train in Halmstad. I was just to meet a shorthaired guy with a big brown backpack accompanied by a tall, eldery rather eccentric looking male. Well, I found them quickly, even though the latter one didn´t look quite as much as santa claus as I´d expected. Then on to basecamp a couple of hours away, where everyone were in standby mode, waiting for the Nordica that I was finally briefed about. Activists had managed to board it outside Öland in the middle of the night. Then the Nordica went into port in Karlskrona where the activists were apprehended by police. The ship´s movements was easy to follow via internet, and once it left port again it would reach the waters outside Gedser about twelve hours later.
At three in the morning it was raise and shine and after some well needed coffee we entered two small rubber boats and started the bumpy 1,5 hour drive at full speed straight out into the darkness. As the boat I rode in was a twoseater, I had to stand in the back, half ways down in a split position, holding on for dear life as my polish boat driver drove the thing like a…. polish boat driver. It was pretty much like riding one of those mechanical rodeo bulls you´d find at amusement parks and elsewhere, but for 90 minutes instead of the standard 30 seconds…
Finally the Nordica appeared out the mist, and all of a sudden several more GP boats showed up too. The other ones had attacked the icebreaker a few hours earlier in pitch darkness. Being able to rotate on its own axis, the Nordica hit one of the GP boats, resulting in a woman falling overboard. I know a lot of people think activists are idiots, but to me they are extremely brave guys who risk their own lives for the sake of our common planet.
Anyhow, then all the GP boats just followed the Nordica for several hours, accompanied by a danish coast guard vessel. I was beginning to feel a bit bored to be honest when another interception suddenly was ordered. Boats with activists raced close to the Nordica on both sides of her, starting to paint ”Stop Shell” on the hull. Immediately Nordica started revolving on her own axis again, almost turning one of the surprised GP boats upside down. It actually kind of looked like a gigant dinosaur trying to shake off a bunch of wasps attacking it. Pretty soon the sailors started spraying water on the GP boats with fire hoses, and also throwing things like bolts and nuts. Then all of a sudden a large helicopter appeared and begun hovering over the Nordica. Now what? Well, if it reminded of Jurassic park two minutes ago, now it was James Bond instead. From the heli a dozen or so of swat team cops (or whatever they call them in Denmark) was rappelled down onto deck!
I was trying my best to capture the action from the boat all photographers had assembled on, but had a hard time keeping lenses and cameras free of water which was spraying all over. One of my 5dMkII:s, kept in a waterproof bag, was dead when I picked it up. Very weird as it hadn´t seen any action at all, just the inside of a dry and comfortable bag. Luckily I as always had two cameras with me, and the other one didn´t fail, surviving both numerous gushes of saltwater and getting dropped hard on the boat deck, without lens and exposed sensor! Finally though, the much water on the lenses made shooting impossible, but by then the action was over. Eight hours in a small rubber boat, plus a pretty bad cold, took its toll and i was pretty worn out by the time we got ashore again. My very talented collegue Christian (www.christian.se) was probably even more exhausted. He didn´t get any sleep at all that night, as he went out to shoot the night raid. Like I said before: those GP people are rock hard….

As Greenpeace has exclusive right to my images for three months, I can´t show you much action pics, just a little sneak peak. So, come back in three months and you´ll see some more…

Wedding season is on.

fotografhalmstad — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:20:56 +0000

I thought this winter would last for ever, but now things are looking a lot better and spring looks like it might show up this year too. And that also brings wedding photography season! I know a lot of collegues hate shooting weddings: it´s time consuming, scary (failure is not an option), always on weekends and involve customers who are private persons rather than companies which sometimes is more of a hassle to deal with.
But I really like weddings.
Everyone is happy, emotional and beautiful. I get to play as much as I want in photoshop (which is an absolute no no in news and reportage photography) and I do actually get to SEE my customers, as a contrast to shooting for clients in Stockholm whom I might be able to go and see maybe once a year at best.
I know there are as many ways of shooting weddings as there are wedding photographers out there, but for myself I like to have an informal meeting with my clients a few months or so before their big day.
Today I had a meeting with a soon to be married couple, and that was actually a meeting out of the ordinary. The man is the third sibling in the same family I get to serve with wedding images! I bet not every photographer get to do that!
Tomorrow I´ll be going to Helsingborg on assignment for Volvo.
Today´s pictures are from the other day, and depicts immigrants who get to acquaint themselves with swedish nature. No buyer as of yet on this one, so if you know an editor who´d be interested – let me know!

Gerda

fotografhalmstad — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:46:31 +0000

A while ago I did a job for tidningen Företagaren (magazine entrepreneur). It featured businesswoman Gerda Böcklinger who became filthy rich when she sold her company. Now she´s into chips, pumpkin oil and that kinda stuff. I wanted a picture of her surrounded by her products, but pumpkin oil would be… messy and fine chocolate (which she also sells) wouldn´t do the trick either. So I put her on the floor, put a large sheet of cardboard with a hole in it on top of her and then added boxes of fancy beetroot chip boxes around her. Then I mounted a forklift and had a girl lift me up in the sky. I think it turned out pretty cool. Not unique in any way, but a decent piece of work. In the end the magazine chose another (a lot more boring in my opinion) picture. But as long as the customer is happy, I´m happy!

light!

fotografhalmstad — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:30:41 +0000

Here´s a pretty cool website which lets you try out different light settings on a person. Check it out!