I took the bike down to Välsta yesterday. Closing in on the old tree I ran into my friend Bird Man. We decided to park the bikes and go for a walk in the rural landscape. A few tractors were out on the fields, and the farmers where busy wrapping hay bales in plastic film. We walked over to one of the blooming canola fields at the Nödesta farm. Bird Man figured he could use some portraits for his Facebook site so I grabbed the camera and started shooting. The butterfly is a Small Tortoiseshell.
On my way home from documenting a semi-abandoned farm the other day, I noticed this 1968 Beetle with a Lucky-13 Spade Skull theme. So I had to stop and grab a few images.
Dressed in black and with black hair. But the first thing I noticed about Nora was her pink sunglasses. We met near the commuter station in Handen yesterday, only meters from where I photographed the Phantom earlier this year. As I was asking her a few questions one of her friends turned up. Nora is a local girl. She works as a PA for Meter TV. She enjoys drawing and photography so I told her to open a flickr account.
One of my hobbies is to visit local farms. One reason for that is that they are disappearing one by one so they need to be documented. This is rural Skarplöt near Fors in Västerhaninge where a new residential area with 600 houses is under construction. The farm dates back to at least 1724. It is today owned by Nils Pettersson and his wife Anna-Britta, whose family have lived here since 1734. I took my bike down to Skarplöt a while back and knocked on their door. They invited me in, and Anna-Britta gave me a tour of their house. It was like stepping back in time some 70 years or so. The couple bought Skarplöt in 1962 from Anna-Britta's father. He was a local politician, just like my grandfather. Anna-Britta told me that she had a few photos of my grandparents. A friend from the historical association has promised to get me some copies of those photos later. Eleven years after buying Skarplöt Nils and his wife were full time farmers with 25 to 30 dairy cattle. Nils retired from farming in 2002 when he was 79 years old. Most of the buildings here are from the turn of the last century. After our chat I went for a photo stroll around the farm. If you understand Swedish you can read an interview with Nils here.
This is the board. The guy in the hat with the moustache is the chairman. His name is Kjell Kronqvist. I met the board at a recent visit to the art gallery in Österhaninge, when I had a closer look at the 2011 Art Promenade. The theme this year is Meetings. This artwork was made by Marie-Anne Kronqvist, who is married to the chairman. This was made as a bit of a joke, at least that is what Marie-Anne told me. When it's windy the heads of the board members go back and forth, like they are all agreeing with the chairman! I will show you a few more sculptures from this years promenade in the coming weeks.
After the traditional dancing around the Midsummer Pole at the park in Jordbro yesterday, I decided to go around and shoot some candid portraits. These are the ones that I liked the most. Two young girls from different backgrounds having some fun. One jumping for joy while the other one takes her photo. A little later they go through the photos. You can of course see all the photos in the slideshow that I posted yesterday.
Midsummer is the most important weekend in Sweden. I visited the Midsummer celebrations that took place in the park in Jordbro earlier today. A few hundred people had gathered to dancing around the Midsummer Pole and listen to live music. There was also a lot of fun for all the kids. Here is a slide show with a few photos. I will add more photos later and you will be able to all of them in the slideshow.
This is Åke Rhudin. Journalist, author, historian, storyteller, postman and more. Whenever you meet him you can expect to hear a few true (and funny) stories. Here is one. Delivering mail to the Almåsa Conference Centre, which is operated by Iris, a group for the visually impaired, on a very warm day, Åke can feel that the staff are staring at him. He was treated to coffee at another house, and the coffee pot must have had had soot on it. Now all that soot is covering his face. He is offered a chance to take a shower and quickly accepts. Opening a door in the shower room he finds a sauna and decides to use it. Opening another door a little later, he finds himself at the indoor swimming pool. It is filled with blind people so Åke decides to go for a swim despite being in the nude. When he enters he informs everyone who he is. As he leaves the pool he suddenly decides to do the dick o copter! Six months later, back at the conference centre he is told that a group of people would like to meet him. That's when he realised that the people in the pool six months earlier were not blind at all, but a group of people from the Swedish social insurance agency and now as they are back at Almåsa they want to see what the mail-man looks like when he is not naked! They also tell him that the story of the naked mail man doing the dick o copter has spread around the world!
A while back I was having coffee at my favorite cafe when two guys in a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo drove up the road. They tried their best to act as cool as possible. I think that's one of the rules when you own a Supercar. But when they drove away a few minutes later they actually waved to the photographer. As far as I know there are only 180 Lamborghini's in Sweden. Oh, and if you have to ask how much it cost, chances are you can't afford it.
Whenever I visit a festival or any other fun event I always try to shoot a few candid portraits. Here are two such snaps from the classic car meet at Torvalla. Two couples holding hands.
Spotted these girls in Västerhaninge a couple of days ago (hard not to). On their way to Plattan at Sergels Torg in Stockholm. This is Lina and Fanny. Lina is dressed as the character Luki from the Manga series Dogs. Her friend Fanny as Elizabeth from Black Butler. Lina told me that it was the third time she is dressed up like a anime character. For Fanny it was her firs time. They weren't going to a convention, just meeting other cosplayers at the square.
Two very different Volkswagens. The cool sports-car is a Porsche replica, built from a Volkswagen 1200 from 1965. The second photo shows a 1960 Beetle convertible. The woman behind the wheels is called Elisabeth. She works at my favorite cafe in Handen. The car is in mint condition and belongs to her son.
Are you looking to buy a new car? Something practical for the whole family to enjoy? Why not go for the 2009 Calambo. It's the only one of its kind. Not sure what it is? It's a replica of a Lamborghini Countach. The engine comes from a Rover. The gearbox from a Renault. The rest of it you build yourself.
I first saw Tess at a summer festival in Brandbergen on Saturday when she was singing with a band called Doktor Krall. They play music from the 1950s and 1960s, and she joined them on stage for a few songs. Imagine my surprise the very next day when I noticed her walking towards a classic car meet in Handen. I stopped and told her that I had taken a few photos of her the day before. She recognised me and told me that she was singing with the same band at this event as well. An our or so later I spotted Tess talking to Rune Thorsell, a guy I have met at a number of events before. He owns a few very cool cars and motorcycles, and Tess now asked me if I could take some photos of her in front of his Ford Crown Victoria. As she posed a helicopter took off and the wind moved her dress around a bit, and that's when I took this photo that Tess now have decided to buy. I really like coincidences like this one.
I visited a car show over the weekend. A fun event with sport cars, classic cars, unusual cars and also of course, the odd Raggarbil, which is what you are looking at here. It's a very Swedish subculture. People with a love for the US, and especially the cars and the music from the 1950s to the early 1970s. If you would like to read more about this subculture, try this article from guardian.co.uk. The guy you see here is Jonne Engström who was one of the co-drivers in last years season of Sweden's Worst Driver. In a few weeks time the world's largest classical car meet will take place in Västerås like it does every year. More facts at the official web site for The Big Power Meet.
The last day of the school year is always a big day in anyone's life. I was in Handen when I met the five girls of summer on the top photo. They had been to a school graduation ceremony where students, teachers, parents and relatives are all dressed up, and where a few summer songs are sung, including everyone's favorite, Ida's Summer Song. From left to right: Celina, Riisa, Carolin, Thea and Helena. The two girls on the second photo graduated from the Fredrika Bremer secondary school last Friday. I don't know them, but I was in the area when I heard a lot of screaming and shouting, so I decided to stick around for some fun photos. If you are curious why they are standing in front of a truck, check out my Schools Out set.
A Summer wedding is never wrong. I happened to be at a gallery garden a while back on a day when at least three couples decided to get married in the Medieval church in rural Österhaninge. On the first photo you can see Rickard and Anneli Furustad from Trollbäcken happily posing with their two kids for their official wedding photographer, and me. It was the warmest day of the year so far, and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, so they really picked the right day for the wedding. I walked over to the next couple and asked if I could get a photo, their wedding photographer muttered something that I took as a yes. The third wedding couple arrived to the garden as the second couple was still being photographed, and the muttering photographer told everyone that this was his area, his social talents is something he needs to work on, but he sure was dedicated. I grabbed my third photo from a table at the gallery garden where I was having coffee. Congrats to all three couples. If you would like to see photos of the old church, check out my flickr set.
Spotted this guy in Jordbro on Saturday. He was lost. And late for a meeting down at my favorite beach Årsta Havsbad, so I decided to help him out. This is Bo Dellensten. He works as a traffic consultant. His company has worked with many municipalities in the greater Stockholm area, including Huddinge Tyresö and Nacka, but not Haninge, at least not yet. Bo is obviously a keen cyclist (despite not owning a bike map over Haninge). But he did have a GPS mounted on the bike. He has used this recumbent bicycle for a number of years. It's a Dutch made bike, a M5 20-20. Bo also has a web site about cycling, called www.cykelguiden.nu/. He has worked as a journalist and written a few books about cycling.
I visited a Summer Festival on Saturday. In Brandbergen. That's where I met Jacob and Åsa. Two police officers working from the Brandbergen station. It was a warm and sunny day, and everyone seemed happy, so it wasn't a very hard day for the officers. But they were in fact bribed during the day. I happened to overhear that conversation, so I demanded the same bribe, and a minute later we were all enjoying a free ice cream! I also met the new Mayor Martina Mossberg and we talked about politics for a while. I mentioned that I would blog about the festival and Martina told me that she had seen some of my photos. Two good bands were playing. Indoors you could listen to The Taxi Stand Steel Band. I have seen them before and they are always fantastic. The other band I saw was Doktor Krall. They play music from the 50s and 60s. They were joined by a singer called Tess Mercedes. Everyone gets hungry during a festival so there was a BBQ run by a local association called Samarkand. They got a bit exited when they noticed my camera, and a bit disappointed when I wasn't shooting for a newspaper. You could also enjoy African food. I took a portrait of a young man called Hesam, he is a police volunteer and a future police offer, we discussed photography which is one of his new hobbies. I also snapped a photo of a colorful clown who was busy making balloon animals for visiting kids. To see all photos (including a mishap for the police offocers), check out the slideshow above.
This is a teenager that is hard to miss. Steffi is a secondary school student from Tungelsta. She plays the drums in a pop punk band called Trimmad Rullator (The Tuned Walker). Two years from now when she graduates from school she will probably start working as an assistant in a tattoo studio called PMS. Oh, and yes Julie, Steffi told me that she already have four tattoos. Not bad for a sixteen year old girl.
