Meira

Scouting for portraits in Handen I noticed a woman out on a brisk walk, but as I could see that she was listening to music, I decided not to disturb her. Ten minutes later when I saw here again I changed my mind. This is Meira. A very unusual name that her mother picked because she (mom that is), had a friend called Maire when she lived in Finland. Meira works at Stockholm South General Hospital as a Certified Nursing Assistant. She's a fitness fanatic. She works out at least four times every week. When she's not jogging, she's at the gym taking spinning classes or aerobic classes. She's a mother of three, and before the kids came she worked out every day of the week.

Memory Hole

I had a sneak preview at an upcoming art exhibition yesterday. This is Arvid Wretman and Jenny Palén. Their exhibition is called Memory Hole and it will open at the Haninge Cultural Centre on Friday. I was having coffee at the cafe and started talking to Åsa Mårtensson who is the Master of Arts at the centre. She told me about the exhibition and we walked into the showroom where Arvid and Jenny were busy working. I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the showroom so I asked them if we could go outside for a quick portrait. Arvid and Jenny are students at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. The Memory Hole exhibition will run from this Friday until the 22th of August. If you visit on Friday you will also see a performance by Arvid and hear a musical performance by David Giese aka Joxaren. Later in the summer there will be an open workshop for students between seventh grade and ninth grade.

The Four-Dimensional Paradise

It is paradisical to look through a complicated maze of spaces and at the same time see that there is something more behind it.


Anders Reuterswärd.

From the 2010 Art Promenade in Österhaninge that opened this past weekend at the Galleri Kyrkskolan. The theme this year is Paradise. I took a photo stroll in the summer weather as I do every year and then had coffee and cake in the garden with a few of the artists. If this style of art looks familiar, it's because I took a portrait of Anders posing with one of his paintings last summer. More art from the art promenade to follow during the summer.

A Political Portrait

Sitting on my veranda reading the morning paper on Saturday I suddenly heard someone singing. I jumped on the bike and headed over to the park. The first thing I noticed there was two politicians. The man in the grass is Raymond Svensson from the Centre Party. He is a full time politician and group leader for his party in Haninge. And also the chairman of the Archipelago Foundation. It was the Centre Party that had organized this event. Did I mention that it is an election year? The surprising thing was the entertainer who sang Bellman and Taube in front of the old greenhouse. It was Mikael Trolin, also known as The Prince, (and yes, he is a real Prince, see my portrait of him from two years ago). He is now the leader of the Liberal Party in Haninge. And is running for a seat in the Swedish Riksdag. He was doing his coalition partner a favour by singing a few songs during this meeting. And as I sat down next to the blogging Raymond Svensson, The Prince sang the Dalarö Song for his friend.

The Girl With The Striped Dress

This is Donna. I noticed her (impossible not to, with that great dress), at Poseidon's Square in Handen a couple of days ago. She had a day off from work and was meeting up with a friend for some shopping. Donna is from Småland (in the south of Sweden), but has lived in Haninge for eight years. She's hoping for a future as a hair stylist and makeup artist. Her dream is to have her own beauty saloon some time in the future. Half an hour or so after I took her portrait I saw her again when she was having coffee with her friend.

School's Out Forever!

Or at least for the summer. I saw (and heard), these happy graduate students at Trollbäcken in Tyresö yesterday. They are secondary school students and are now leaving school after twelve long years. Some of them will continue to a higher education come the fall. Others will take a year off and travel the world, and others will start working. Good luck to them all. Chances are that they will not remember much of what happened on this day as they probably have been partying all week...

A Streak of Bad Luck

This is a girl with a bit of bad luck. I noticed Sofie with her crutches in Jordbro and asked her what had happened. She told me it was a soccer accident. Sofie plays for Haninge DFF. It was during a match that the accident happened. She was running for the ball and collided with the other teams keeper. The goalkeeper hurt her hip, but it was worse for Sofie. She broke her shin-bone. The next bad news for Sofie is that now she cant work. Which means that the planned trip to Australia with her boyfriend is now in jeopardy. But there is some good news. Sofie will graduate from Kungsholmens secondary school next Wednesday. So hurrah for that!

The Wannabe Groupie

I met Sanna at Poseidon's Square a sunny day last week. She was discussing something with a friend and I decided to break up that conversation and get a portrait. Sanna lives in Märsta (close to Arlanda Airport). She is a big fan of Thåström. And an even bigger fan of Marilyn Manson. I asked her what she would like to do in the future. I wanna be a Manson groupie was her surprising answer. Do you work, or are you still at school was my next question. No, I have a puppy. Another unexpected answer. When she can afford it Sanna travels around the country to meet friends, party and visit music festivals. Sounds like fun.

The Dudes

This is Dennis and Robin. I met them in Handen last week and decided to ask them for a portrait because I thought they looked kinda cool and relaxed. Robin is originally from Malmö, in the south of Sweden. These days he lives at Spånga. He works as a bartender here and there. On his free time he plays soccer (wing back), in a korp league team called Last Minute United. His buddy Dennis is someone who I have met before. He flips burgers at McDonald's at the mall in Handen, and when I met him a few years ago he looked like Jeff Lynne. Not sure who he resembles now with that moustache and those yellow sunglasses.

Watch Out For Unicorns

I had noticed this sign a number of times before I decided to take a photo of it a couple of years ago, but the sign is still there, I saw it only last week and figured then that it would be perfect for this months theme day, which is Funny Signs. The unicorn sign can be found at Kalvsvik in rural Österhaninge. And as you can guess there are a few horse farms in this area. This is close to the art gallery, so it is possible that whoever it was that designed the sign, got the inspiration from the annual art promenade that takes place here.

This is actually one of my more popular flickr photos. 79 people call this a favourite and it has gathered around 10 000 views.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants of the theme day.

The Artist

This is Anneli Malm. She is an artist. She does handicrafts and paintings. And also a lot of angels that my friend Jim seemed to like, as some of the arty stuff he makes are a bit similar in style. I met Anneli at her new shop/showroom at Dahlgrensgården at Tyresta National Park. She showed me around and told me a little about her ideas. She's planning to sell handicraft on the first floor in the old building, and show some of her more expensive paintings up on the loft. The shop will be open mainly on weekends. Visiting kids will be able to make their own art. Anneli grew up at Farsta Strand and today she lives at Gubbängen (two Stockholm suburbs). She's managed to get a spot at Stortorget, the main square at the old town in Stockholm, and that's where you can find her every December. That really is a good place to sell your art, ask anyone who has ever visited Stockholm and they have probably been there.

The Magician

Pick a Card, Any Card..

So that's what I did. And then the magician tricked me five or six times in under a minute. This is Timmy. He is only eighteen years old, but has been doing magic tricks since he was eight. When he was twelve he started taking it more seriously. If possible he would like to make a living as a magician. Every Friday you can meet Timmy at the Wishing Well boutique in Handen. When he isn't tricking photographers he works with web design and computer programming. Oh and he likes photography as well.

The Abandoned Farm

This is Lövsättra. The name sättra means a field outside a village and that's very fitting here. The abandoned farm is located in a forest, just outside of Tungelsta. You can tell that it is abandoned by the state of the road leading up to the farm. It is grass covered and there are fallen trees everywhere. There are four buildings at the old farm. The main house, to the right on the top photo. The big barn to the left, (that has a roof that doesn't look that old). There are also a wood shed and one stone cellar type of building. I spent about an hour here walking around taking in the sights and shooting some photos so if you are interested have a look at the slideshow. I found some glass jars in the kitchen, and a few other items. Up on the attic I noticed a bed. There were some more things in the barn. Among them garden tools, a tyre swing and a home made bench. And also a workbench with tools and nails. I don't have any other info about this place yet, but my sisters husband (a long time journalist), has been digging around a bit, and he found a living relative to the last farmer who used this land, and has interviewed her for an upcoming article at haninge.org.

How to spend 1 000 000 SEK

The municipality has decided to spend 1 000 000 SEK on flower arrangements in Haninge this year. Thats 50% more than usual. The man you see here is Janne Sandh. One of the few remaining gardeners in Tungelsta. I spotted him up on a ladder along "Fina Gatan" in Handen. Some of the extra money will go to a number of Hanging baskets that you will see here soon. When that happens I will go back to see if it was worth all that money, so it better be...

Skywatch Friday.

The Bombshell

I spotted the beautiful Mary in Handen on one of those warm sunny days we had last week. She comes from Stuvsta, in the neighbouring municipality of Huddinge. She works at the Stockholm International Fair, and is a former elite gymnast. Sadly Mary had to give up the sport after eleven years of training, due to an gymnastics-related accident where she fell and hurt her arm. As you can see she is still super fit. And that is thanks to her new hobby which is pole fitness. That is strength- and endurance training, combined with dance and acrobatics on a pole. I think I might wanna see that!

That Old Tree

Finally some news about The Old Tree. There have been plans to build a new national arena for horse racing here. Something people have been debating for quite some time. I have met people who are behind the idea, because of all the money it would generate, and locals who would like to keep the open landscape as it is. On my way to the old tree the other evening, I stopped for a chat with the film icon/journalist and editor Christina Lindberg who can see the tree from her home at Välsta. She has worked hard to stop the race track, and she told me that the plans for the track has now been scrapped. Apparently Solvalla backed out of the project. So hurrah for that! Christina also informed me that the municipality have decided to set aside some money to look into what might happen to this area in the future. If you are new to this blog and are wondering what I am going on about, have a look at the slideshow below.

Funny Shot of the day

While in Handen a sunny day last week I noticed a TV crew from TV4 nearby and headed that way to see what was going on. It turned out to be Per and Johan from Förkväll. A programme that focuses on fashion and health, and a few other things. It's my mother's favourite show at the moment. It's hosted by three women. One of them is the former Miss Universe Yvonne Ryding. The woman you see here walking her dog Nikki, is Izza. She was on the Swedish version of the reality show Momma's Boys last year. She caused a bit of a scandal I guess, when she came out as bisexual, and I read somewhere that she was going to marry her girlfriend. When I met them last week they were shooting a 90 second intro that will air on June 2th when Izza will be a guest on the show. I took a bunch of photos of Izza and the crew, but I think this one was the best and also the funniest!

Evelyn & Marco

I was taking some photos of a new mobile art room at Poseidon's Square when Marco came up to me. He wanted to know a bit about my camera. Marco is an artist from Handen. He has just made a photo book with some of his paintings. He is also a street artist, known as SKAB. His best friend is another street artist, known as KLAB, who has done a few cool stencils that I have photographed this year. The pretty girl next to Marco is his girlfriend Evelyn. She lives in Jordbro and is a secondary school student, studying Fashion and Trade in Farsta. She's hoping for a career as a fashion designer. And as you can guess by looking at Marco's eyes it was a very sunny day.

You can see another portrait of the couple at Tumblr.

The Very Tough Girls

I stopped at the tiny beach at Upper Lake Rudan the other day to enjoy a very light lunch. There was a few people about, and these two very tough girls (their description), had just gone for a swim in the lake and probably wanted to dry up as it was kinda cold in the water, but very warm in the sun, around 25 Celsius. But when I asked them if they could jump back into the lake so that I could get a few summer like photos they quickly agreed. Although they said it felt like -5C! The girls are from Handen, and are students at the Söderbymalmsskolan. They had a half day off from school and what better way to enjoy that then heading for the beach. The rock behind the tough girls is called the Elephant Rock. It's very popular with rock climbers. The last time I took a photo here was back in November when I shot the multitasking angler.

The Ref

I was at a Supermarket in Handen when I noticed a woman with a Beijing Olympics tattoo on her back. This is Ulrika. She is a wheelchair rugby referee. I accidentally wrote down basketball and Ulrika quickly said, no no, that's a sport for sissies, this is the real deal! But she said it with a smile on her face. Her brother had an accident many years ago, where he broke his neck, and that's how Ulrika got involved with the sport. She has a lot of experience with four European Championships, one World Cup, and one Olympic Games on her growing merit list. Next up is the world cup in Vancouver. At the moment there's TV series about a wheelchair rugby team running on SVT called Köping Hillbillies where you can see Ulrica. Read more about the sport at the Wheelchair Rugby Federation website.