Here’s a photo from a trip to London in 2008, if I recall. I didn’t think much of this frame when I first snapped it, just turned around and made a quick shot. But it turned out good. To me it has some kind of mystery and I begin to wonder who this scary man walking the dog was. I like how gritty and grim it is, much like London in the late fall.
Olympus XA, 400 film (as 800?), stand developed in 1:100 Rodinal.
This one is also from 2007. I had just bought my Olympus XA (for 30 euro at a flee market, without knowing anything about the camera) and was playing with the flash in street photography. Inspired by Bruce Gilden’s aggressive style I tried to push myself to go really close to my subjects. At one point I almost got chased by a screaming group of young girls with balloons and done up in animal style make up. They didn’t appreciate my flash.
Olympus XA, 400 film, the cameras dedicated flash. Stand developed in 1:100 Rodinal r09 formula.
Nobody seems to like this one as much as I do. I think it’s beautifully mystical in its simplicity. The photo is from 2007, when I often took long walks in Stockholm. Back then the city was new and interesting to me so my eyes were always looking for odd things and compositions. The arrows was alluring, I still wonder what they pointed to.
Leica CL, 40 mm f2.8 lens. Some 400 film, 1:100 Rodinal stand development
I need to get to grips with this blog again. Here’s a photo from some lousy winters day between 2007 and 2009, when I lived in Kärrtorp, in the south of Stockholm. I was working two evenings a week as a telemarketer for a magazine which I really liked. I hated the job after a while but at least I got overcome my semi-phobia for speaking to people on the phone. This photo is probably while waiting for the train to work on one of those evenings. As you can see, the snow fall was pretty bad. I like how photographic this image is.
I’m not really sure of the camera. Perhaps my XA. Some 400 film and Rodinal 1:100 developer, as usual.
Here’s a very insightful and interesting documentary about Joel Meyerowitz, the (street) photographer. 58 minutes.
So what’s up? I just decided to have a photo exhibition for my friends in my appartment. It’s going to be on the two year anniversary of my move back to Stockholm, and about 5 weeks after my 25th birthday. So three reasons to celebrate. I am going to sit down and paint a poster for the party now, just for fun.
I also ordered about 60 rolls of black and white film a week ago, it’s should arrive during the coming week. I’ve been running really low on film and even had to ask friends to donate some color film to keep me going. And I ordered a Lecia screwmount to M-mount adapter so I finally can use that 50 mm lens which has just been lying in a box.
I feel that the coming spring is going to be interesting. It was quite I while since my interest in photography was as alive as it is now.
This summer I visited some friends and my x in Berlin for 8 days. I had the best time ever, just going there with no pretensions at all. I lived in Kruezberg for free, I had access to a bike, I went on midnight tours alone with my mini-skateboard and music, I had the best falafel, I saw some great exhibitions and concerts and my friends showed me all the worthwhile sights. This became the model of what I wanted to get out of big city trip.
This is my x (in the center) crusing through Mitte on our way to the Reichtag and what not.
Olympus XA and 400 film. Trusty combination.
I like this photo, all tough I can’t really say why. It’s of one of my friends, let’s call her AK. We had a great groove of watching movies quite on a regular basis, good times. I wish we could get back to that.
Probably with my Leica M2 + Voigtländer 35mm f1.4. This is one of those photos where I really wish I had access to a better scanner.
This is an image from April 2009. It was miserable and confusing times. I had just come out of a 4 and 1/2 year relationship, I didn’t know what do with my life, I was beginning to doubt my choice of career, I was struggling with depression, fear of what the future might hold and with medicine that turned me into a zombie. This is one of the few negatives I’ve got from those 9 months. I was up visiting some relatives in the far north of Sweden. This is their dog and the road where they live.
Shot with a 6x6 folding camera which I later broke. The film is probably Shanghai 100 shot as 400. This negative has a lot of chemical smudges and scratches, I have left them in the photo.
This is in the part of Stockholm known as Vasastan (the Vasa city). I was working on a documentary project about a store and kitchen for raw food, this was back in 2007. This is one of the corners I usually passed on my way to the store. One day this strange and mysterious looking man was sitting there. It was all ready cold outside and as you can see the chairs and tables are not in use anymore. It’s just outside a fancy looking restaurant/cafe and the sign says that they are deliverers to the royal family. I wonder who this man was. I actually paused for a bit trying to decide if it was worth taking the photo, while he was staring right at me.
I think it was shot with the Leica CL that I used to have then. Probably some kind of ISO 400 film and Rodinal developer, stand developing 1:100 as usual.
This is just some static. A fault in the process of analog photography. I don’t know where, when or why this frame was shot. It just is. I have a vision of making a whole exhibition of these “lost frames” that sometimes appear so beautifully in the beginning of a roll. You can’t really decide how they will turn out, yet they are so physical and real.
This is from Signaldalen in the very north of Norway. I went there with my family on a road trip this summer, after attending my cousin Ulrikas wedding in Luleå. I have a few distant relatives up there and was about six years of age last time I visited. The name of the mountain is Otertind. The nature and sights were just spectacular but I can’t imagine myself living here during the winter when they have literally no sunlight at all, for weeks.
I took this photo with an old Kodak Pocket nr.1 and medium format Shanghai ISO 100 film. I developed using my regular method, in 1:100 Rodinal formula for 1 hour.
This is at a natural pier near Ibiza Town. I was there earlier this summer to shoot the first part of a dance film with my friends in Stigfurpatrullen. The trip was filled of lousy weather, bad food, cheap booze and a nice attitude from the people involved.
As I am writing this I am still awake at 3:42 in the morning and we are leaving in just a few hours for a road trip to the very north of Sweden to film the remaining scenes. It is going to be one hell of a week.
Photo taken with my trusty Olympus XA and 400 Rollei Retro film in 1:100 Rodinal.
I usually try to squeeze in a few hours of skateboarding every evening if I got the time. This is in a suburb close to where I live. Right by this basket ball court is a small “park” with just some curbs, a tiny (and slippery) quarter pipe and a manual plateau. This is my spot. It’s far enough from the city center to mostly be populated by locals and it’s always a nice session when I come here. The sign reads “The field - an open park for everyone”.
The camera used is probably my Olympus XA, film is Rollei Retro 400 developed in 1;100 Rodinal.
This is the first post. I have two intents with this blog.
a) to force myself to look at and appreciate my own work on a regular basis
b) to share my everyday photos and stories from my life with who ever reads this
My name is Joakim Mathiasson and I live in the southern suburbs of Stockholm. After two years of photography studies I am currently studying journalism for another three years. I am currently 24 years old and this is all you need to know for now, you’ll learn more from the blog in the future.
