Swedish Interiors

I can't remember by heart how many pictures I've taken in nearly eighteen years of digital photography. An simple inquiry on my storage devices could return scaring numbers. I stopped counting them a long time ago. As a matter of fact, for years, during my travels in Northern Europe I used to shoot everything I saw and store them in the HD as soon as I was back home, in wait for better times.

Those better times never arrived. Nevertheless, from time to time it happens to dig into the folders for some other reasons and stop on shoots that I forgot about. Simple pictures, some times taken in prohibitive conditions and apparently meaningless to anyone else but me.

So, this afternoon I fell into a folder where the following two pictures had been thrown. They were taken with an old mobile telephone of mine. The original images are really poor but the process I applied to convert them to B&W made things better, turning them into something good enough for publishing.

They were taken in Mölndal, in the old Ericsson premises were the product unit I belonged to was based. At that time a total restructuring operation had just been announced and several offices had been left empty, or almost.

Empty spaces have always been my favorites for long discussions on the phone or for short leg-stretching walks during a coffee break. In one of those rooms, right on the windowsill I spotted some decoration items, left as if the room had just been abandoned under a fire alarm. Items brought in office to make it look like warmer, as our own apartments and then surprisingly forgotten, abandoned.

(A Swedish Window)

The glass bowl on a typical Swedish styled piece of furniture, that I wondered if it ever had been used for any purpose, was another example. Laying on a parquet floor full of screws rolling around and each of my steps was worth of a modern art installation, that I couldn't disregard.

(A Swedish Meeting Table)

A Theoretical Approach

(Sent by my mobile)

Midnight Light

I've been sitting on the grey back a limestone boulder in the deafening silence of the Archipelago's late hours, not far from the small pier where the last ferry back to Saltholmen was expected to stop. I have seen the street lights on the opposite island's harbor switching on, like the brightest stars in the sky, as the sunlight was getting dim and the birds were swimming in the shadows like ghosts claiming the ownership on the natural channel in between. I've been lingering whether to stay or jump on the approaching boat, till the roar of a moped running fast across the island wood came to wake me up.

Blue Oil

The shallow stretch of water between Goteborg and its archipelago, as perceived (and processed) by my mobile cam.

Looking for the midnight sun

A short after-work trip to Branno island, on the Goteborg southern Archipelago. I wonder if I should turn these (sent live via mobile) pictures in Black and White. Once I'll be back home I'll have to reserve some time to "adjust" them anyhow. The real picture I have in front of me right now is much better than what technology vehiculates.

Frame in frame

Back in the same old hotel, back to the same old backstreet view.

(Sent by mail from my mobile)

Saltholmen - 10:19 p.m.

Back to Brännö - II

Right in the middle of the island, where the two main streets cross each other, there's a small restaurant with few tables inside the two small rooms available (and a small "veranda" just fit for one round table). It usually takes some luck to find it open and a table where to sit. I remember that once, in the autumn season, I got to the door five minutes after the closing time and, notwithstanding the kitchen was open for the guests already sitting inside, I was told to be late. I found it quite disappointing to get back on my steps, walk the mile to the peer and sit under the waiting hut for almost an hour.

This time I was lucky. All the noisy guests were sitting outside and beside a nice group of gentle ladies talking quietly in the setting sun soaked veranda, no one else was inside. I picked my favourite corner, called for the chart and, while waiting for the dinner to be served, I pulled out my travels notebook and started taking record of the lucky event.

The Five Continents

Jarntorget, the Iron Square, is one of the busiest places in Goteborg. People crossing streets, streets crossing tramways, tramways crossing the sky. And if, in this huge mess of bodies and cars, you had the time to forget the ice on the ground walk erect without loosing balance and look up in the sky you could spot this allegory of the continents of the World, as it was perceived one century ago. Each female silhouette, sitting on her own, offers her shoulders to the others. Hasn't it always been like this after all?

Vanity

Going to work - II

Approching Lindholmen ...

In the Kingdom of the Cranes

Prospettiva Ovest

Now and Zen

Three elements of the Scandinavian winter that most attract my attention: cracked ice, naked rocks and bare birches. A perfect natural black and white picture. Even a short walk along the river offers chances to stop, hold your glance for a while and meditate.

Going to work

Once out of the hotel, the journey begins ...

A broken ball

A man at the window

As a permanent apprentice photographer, I maintain and, when possible, elaborate a special relationship with the environment in which I move. This is almost inevitable: every new combination of spaces, lights and objects generates a need for exploration, analysis and sampling. Among the many places that I happen to spend my time in, one of the most interesting are the hotel rooms that I'm given every time I reach my travels destinations.

Hotel rooms are places that I only live from late night to dawn. I don't remember having seen one of the hundreds hotel rooms after early morning hours or much time before dawn. Notwithstanding my limited time, I've learned that hotel rooms provide exciting opportunities for taking pictures when the light coming in from their windows turns everyting into something special. Take for instance the blue light of the sunrise and the orange-yellow tones coming from the street light below.

I'm used to stay silently close to the window panes, sometime before leaving the room, every day. It's a short moment of deep meditation. I love to see the people getting to work, moms and kids heading to schools, street workers already busy with their duties and deliveries. It helps me to find the right spur and strengths to start the day. Travelling is not always necessarily an easy task. After all, there must always be a good reason for finding oneself abroad.

Fishing Huts

 Closed, in wait for better times.

Back from Fishing

I've been away from home and everything else for a while again. I could say that I felt the need for some real winter days and therefore I took a long trip to north, more than 1300 Km far from home, to put my feet on the ice and feel the snow coming down over me and the wind freezing my face. But this is not true. Let me simply say, then, that I had something else to do.
Job duties, of course. Nothing new but, for some reasons, still able to give me enough reasons for loving my job. Alas, beside work and good food ... nothing much more.

Days in Sweden are still too short in this part of the year and weather hasn't been the best for outdoor activities after dinner, lately. I've learned how nice it can be slipping under the blankets once back in the hotel room and quietly watch some TV.

Beside professional achievements, the only remarkable thing of this northern break is that I've been able to carry with me a camera and that I managed to swap a couple of lunch breaks for a walk around, on the "white matter" and take some pictures that I'm going to process of the places around my workplace building.

I've gone fishing. Now I'm back again.

... been waiting so long ...

I forgot to post this picture for some months after I put it in the "draft" queue of my blog. Digging around its folders, today, I spotted it and though it was about time to give it to light. I think it dates back to one of my last travels to Goteborg (if not "the" last). The current downturn does not allow me to travel so often anymore: my last years photo albums are a precious resource not to make this blog running out of pics. This picture has something that fits with long lasting wait. So ... it was worth publishing it in any case.