Category: Personligt

The Westgiotha Gustavianer. A trip to the 1700’s

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The Westgiotha Gustavianer. A trip to the 1700’s

As an assigment at Fotoskolan I got in touch with the Westgiötha Gustavianer (WG). The WG is a cultural association based in Gothenburg (Göteborg) with the purpose of their activities to bring the city of Gothenburg and the Garrison in the late 1700’s  to life and to preserve the heritage from the Gustavian period.

Westgiotha Gustavianer, 1700's, 1700-tal, Göteborg,

In early December I got the chance to join three very nice members of WG on one of their hikes in which they were staying out overnight. One of the purposes of the hike was to test some of their newly handcrafted gear and see if it worked accordingly to expectation. This day happens to be one of autumn’s absolutely worst weather wise, with cats and dogs raining constantly at close to freezing temperatures. Not only was this testing the limits of my photographic gear and ways to handle such extreme conditions, but for the guys it sure was a true test for coping the outdoor life and what the gear and clothes made for the 1700’s really could do for you (no Gore-Tex there!).

Even though the circumstances could have been better (!) I sure had a marvelous time and it was really interesting to study such whole hearted interest from the group. Here are some shots from when the camera lens wasn’t completely covered with icy water:

A huge thank you to Andreas Gustafsson who came with me this uncomfortable day, elevating our spirits, assisting in wiping the lens and carrying heavy gear.

As a bonus I also got to join the WG’s for a gathering down in the city center from where they walked to Skansen Kronan, a redoubt in central Gothenburg, for some Christmas celebrations and 1700’s dancing. Moving around town together with these guys sure was an extraordinary experience, with people turning around just about everywhere to have a curious and closer look. The beautiful and carefully crafted clothing and equipment sure is a joy to watch. And so is the joyful and well practiced dance, characteristic to the period they all are so fantastically fascinated by. And after having spent some time with them, who can resist to be?

conceptual, portrait, Göteborg, dreads, dreadlocks, medieval, magic, fantasy, sorceress, witch, enchantress, dress, forest

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Come with me from the 1700’s to medieval times in my conceptual imaginative portrait with fantasy theme…
 
 

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Where shall we go now? . . . Berlin!

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Where shall we go now? . . . Berlin!

Last week our class at Fotoskolan left Sweden and took an awesome trip together to Germany and to Berlin, The city of Artists. It was a week filled with new inspiration, reflections, and plain old FUN!

We had loads of time to stroll around Berlin to just inhale the spirit of this remarkable city, check out loads of second hand stores, and indulge in german beer. For four hours we got a a guided bike tour through the city and it turned out that Berlin was perfect to bike around in (and some of the guys transformed back to the age of eight… 🙂 ). The evenings were of course spent trying out what the huge variety of bars and restaurants had to offer or trying to beat each other at card games and drinking wine.

I want to hand out a YEAH UH-HU especially to Nadim and Rania for making this trip so special and for all the fun we had. I think I was full of aches from laughter for several days after returning back home. Waking up every morning by getting a towel or a PET bottle  thrown at my head was definitely forgiven by being greeted by two constantly happy hugely smiling faces in the beds next to mine. Thank you my darlings. That’s the way to view life!

We went to several exhibitions and galleries including C/O Berlin – Arnold Newman Neu National Galleri – Gerard Richter Swedish Photography Gallery – Christer Strömholm Helmut Newton Museum – Helmut Newton polaroids and Japanese post-war photography exhibiton Sammlung Boros bunker – private collection Here is a small selection of some of my favorite frames from the week in Berlin, including Die Mauer, Kimchi Princess, Sammlung Boros, The Holocaust Memorial, Tacheles, and more. Berlin_Sammlung_Boros_bunker Berlin_Trumpet Berlin_Kimchi_princess_2           Berlin, street, dead, bird, död, fågel, gata, cigarette               Rania and Nadim – <3 TEAM SAUERKRAUT!
 

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING! Futuristic, storytelling, fashion shoot. Mode, GöteborgIf you like the architecture of Berlin you will want to check out the awesome futuristic water tower in Gothenburg, Sweden, being a fantastic photography location! The tower was part of forming the entire story in the fashion editorial for fashion designer Emelie Arvidsson, ‘The space that is and isn’t’.

 

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On a trip through southern Sweden…

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On a trip through southern Sweden…

…you will find the most extraordinary locations. We went to Skåne, the most southern part of Sweden, several times when I was a child. And sure, I liked it back then, but mostly because of the huge and awesome ice creams in Åhus and the sandy play friendly beaches. But during the trip this summer of 2011 I saw other features. The billowing hills. The fences crossing the vast expanses with a landscaping perfection. The low buildings characteristic for the area. And the sea constantly framing the beauty. And even tough it was almost constantly raining cats and dogs, I fell in love with it.

At the beach in Ängelholm I took the image above, “The homecoming”, for my 52 weeks project. But here are also some other frames from the Skåne trip.

 

Ales stenar – 67 m long and 19 m wide .

Ängelholm beach . 

View from the hill of Ales stenar . 

I created The cherry picker on the shore of Kivik . 

The waiting was done at the beach of Skanör by the bathing huts . 

Andreas in the very charming and picturesque town of Ängelholm . 

Kungagraven (The King’s Grave) outside the small town of Kivik is 3300 years old . 

Sometimes you just have to roll with what you’ve got. This was our home on wheels for two days 🙂 . 

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A visit at Hasselblad

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A visit at Hasselblad

Warning! Camera galore!

Today we had the huge pleasure to go visit Hasselblad, which happens to be located next door in the same building as our photo school Fotoskolan i Göteborg. Fotoskolan has had a great relation to Hasselblad for quite some time and Victor Hasselblad AB and Hasselblad Center is a cooperation partner to our education. I think we were all excited to go there for a presentation of the company and a tour around the production site…

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Gothenburg in the Mist

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Gothenburg in the Mist

This weekend Gothenburg (Göteborg) was shrouded in fog. Very cinematic. And it made me actually love autumn, for once!.

 

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING! conceptual, portrait, Göteborg, dreads, dreadlocks, medieval, magic, fantasy, sorceress, witch, enchantress, dress, forestWe surely celebrated autumn in Göteborg (Gothenburg) in this conceptual portrait of Rania, bringing out the colours and essence of autumn! Come with us into the world of fantasy…

 

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Portrait in existing light

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Portrait in existing light

I’d like to share with you news, updates, fun stuff, hair tearing moments, or whatever comes up from my life as a student at Fotoskolan Göteborg which is the photography school I’m blessed at being at full time from this autumn and four terms forward. We started September 5th which is almost a month ago (sorry for being so slow), but better late than never, right?

The first assignment we got was to use each other in the class as models and to go out and take a portrait using only existing natural light, and if you wanted, a reflector. I had a great day together with my new and awesome classmates Morten Brix and Josefin Olander, and I’m impressed of how well they did 🙂 Here is my shot of Josefin, where I wanted to capture the movement of the scarf on a very windy and grey day.

Soon more posts from school, so keep an eye over here. And don’t forget to keep updated on my work on Flickr. See you soon!

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To enjoy travelling alone… with your only friend Camera

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To enjoy travelling alone… with your only friend Camera

In June 2011 I went to Prague, the goooorgeous capital of the Czech Republic, on business for the DNA analysis company I work for. We were organizing a big event there for a week with courses, exhibition and speaker sessions, and I was in charge of the exhibiton and taking care of the sponsors (The week was awesome! A big thanks to all the participants, sponsors and my colleagues). Since I’d never been in Prague it seemed like a waste just going there for work, so I took some extra days of vacation to just enjoy the city. I was a bit reluctant, not only because I was going alone and I knew I would get serious abstinence after Andreas, but also because I tend to really really want to share memories like this with the person I love. But, it’s good to do things you normally don’t! So off I went…

Another downside to travel alone is that you have to carry all your heavy bags, filled with camera gear, by yourself ;-P Another is to have to eat at restaurants sitting alone at a table for two, not having anyone to talk to and just stare at your food or other guests who after a while think you are creepy (at least it feels like they do!!). But enough about the bad!! Since I try to look on the brighter side of things, as a photographer, there are surely some advantages as well.

Being a photographing maniac can put a strain on a relation when travelling. One wants to move on, and the other wants to find the perfect light direction, spending a great deal of time by each site. I for one was happy this time that I could walk up and down the Charles Bridge, about six times, just to see if the angle on the other side was better. And then I mean all sides. And then also combine it with a perfect timing for that boat… I don’t think any of my near and dear would have been happy about that.

Instead of sitting down at cafés (I don’t often get tired legs) I now could stroll around with a take away coffee in one hand (Starbucks Hazelnut Caffè Latte omg…), and instead got more time to use the other hand to shoot OTHER people at cafés.

One truly amazing place in Prague is the Old Jewish Cemetery. With tombstones from 1439 to 1787 it today contains some 12,000 tombstones on an undersized area. Although the number of persons buried here is much greater, the cemetery being filled up by the harsh history of the Jewish people. When the area wasn’t large enough to fit more graves, earth was brought in to add further layers. Therefore the cemetery contains several burial layers placed on top of each other. From the upper layers tombstones from various periods emerge, both beautiful and historically important. I think most people would find this place interesting. But chasing tombstones without contrasty harsh daylight for two hours might be a bit too much for any company…

In the adjacent Pinkas Synagogue all walls were covered by inscribed names of the Jewish victims of Bohemia and Moravia. 80 000 names, hand written, with all personal data and the communities to which all the victims belonged. A building with high impact. Don’t miss it.

Who would want to walk up the stairs of the tall Town Hall Tower by the Old Town Square, squeezing and pushing through the tight crowd just to be able to have a look at the view in all directions, saying “I’m sorry” every other second, finally reaching the door to get out, and then take another round, just because the sky was lighting up? I do!!

It can also be a bit tricky to convince a travelling partner to climb a very high mountain, just to get that one photo that you just have to get of Prague. Now I could sweat and swear as much as I wanted to! At least I got up there. And the reward afterwards was a nice moment on my back in the pretty park crowning at the top.

(not my shoes…)

Prague is famous for its puppets and marionettes, and if I have had children with me I would most definitely had visited one of the wonderful puppet theaters around the city. …. No. Wait. Hm. I’m not telling the truth here. Let me rephrase… Since I’m a big child at heart, if I have had a little more time on my hands, I would most definitely had visited one of the lovely and fun puppet theaters around the city. All by myself 🙂

Prague also had some downsides…

But most of it was a shear joy. Although one night it was raining… I think from below and upwards, with a wind making it hardly impossible to hold on to an umbrella. Yet still I got to cling on to a bridge railing and take images without anyone complaining (god it’s difficult not to get rain on the lens…)

And Prague was truly beautiful. And most of the time it was showing off itself from the best possible side. If you go there, don’t miss the gorgeous amazing Astronomical Clock…

…by the Old Town Square…

…or the castle with the St. Vitus Cathedral.

And most definitely don’t miss the river Vltava with all the bridges…

…or to take a long stroll around town, just to admire the wonderful architechture.

And even if you are alone, you can always meet wonderful new people (cheers to the super nice two american guys I met on the sightseeing bus tour and kept on bumping into afterwards), and maybe even ask a stranger to immortalize you with your own camera (hey, can be nice to at least see what age you were when you were there 😉 ).

This last image does not only represent a scrumptious dinner. It represents the process of my solo trip. The last evening in Prague I went to one of the really busy restaurants at the Old Town Square. I’d passed by so many times the last couple of days but it had felt really odd to sit down there all by myself when everybody else were cheering in large groups or enjoying romantic dinners for two. But after having enjoyed my own company for quite some time I now felt confident in being me, myself and I. So I actually did take a table for one, got superb service from the waiters (maybe due to the fact that I was a lonely little girl) and had a splendid dinner, studying all the tourists passing by and enjoying the lovely views of the plaza. And I had a wonderful final evening.

I have some wonderful memories from this trip, and I will treasure them for myself. And I really had a great time after all doing Prague on my own. But next time, I must say, my darling Andreas, my heart and soul, you are coming with me 😉

 

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING! stones,Come with me and my class at photography school to another awesome captial of Europe, namely Berlin, The City of Artists! It was a week filled with inspiration, reflections, and plain old FUN!

 

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On frog level

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On frog level

After a long journey flying from Sweden down to Marseilles, renting a car and having a road trip up along the gorgeous coast line of France, detouring through Saint Tropez and Cannes, me and my dear friend Hanna arrived in Juan Les Pines quite late at night. Here we were going to stay for a week with “the girl gang”, just enjoying life and feeling luxurious. And trust me, we did 🙂

Although the first thing I noticed when stepping out of the car and starting to pull my overweight bag over the pavement was… a tiny but very green frog, standing there in my way. Since I just loooove tiny little frogs I had to take a closer look, and I saw that there wasn’t only one. There were two! Mating! At first Hanna looked at me with worried eyes when I absolutely threw myself at the ground with my camera in my hand. But it didn’t take long before she was down there herself. So, before all the luxury started, I was spending my first minutes at the French Riviera flat on my stomach, in the middle of the night, sniffing asphalt, photographing one of nature’s wonders. And it was a perfect moment in time.

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Following inspiration overseas – Rosie Hardy workshop

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Following inspiration overseas – Rosie Hardy workshop

When I first bought my DSLR (and we solemnly named it Cameron…) I was intrigued by what I could create with it. And I was amazed of what a difference the change from compact did to my photos. Out of curiousity I visited the Flickr Explore page that I’d heard would be a great source for looking at what others create with their cameras. It took me about 10 minutes of browsing, and then I stumbled upon it. There was this girl, looking at me through my screen, and she was within another world. There was so much about this image that caught me, the illusionary setting, the well balanced mood, the creative playfullness, that all got me to continue looking through that photostream. What I had found was my first inspirational photographer. Her name is Rosie Hardy.

London, studio, conceptual, portrait

As I begun to develop my knowledge within the art form and started up projects to move forward, I discovered many talented photographers out there that impressed and inspired. But I tended to always find my way back to Rosie’s work, noticing that it always gave me a huge boost of inspiration. Watching her improve with every piece she created was fascinating and pushed me to try to improve myself.

workshop, inspiration, England, Rosie Hardy

And then, last summer, a wonderful opportunity appeared. Rosie put up workshops in London! How could I miss this chance to meet one of my fav photographers in person, and to get some inside tips on how she manages to create her own unique little worlds? Of course, I couldn’t!

The day started with meeting up with Rosie at the cosy studio rented for us. Sitting down on a cool loft, with a variety of sofas and armchairs, all workshopers introduced themselves to get to know each other better.

Rosie continued to tell a bit more about herself, giving us some insights into what has pushed her and what she had done to continue growing as a photographer. Showing us her portfolio Rosie gave us tips and tricks on how she had been performing the shots and described her photography techniques while also answering a huge amount of questions being thrown her way.

After a great talk we went down in the studio to get into action. We were lucky to have the wonderful model Nhuc Tran for the day. Dressed in a marvelous sequin dress, we had no idea what kind of a messy state we soon would be putting her in… Rosie started off by going through how she would perform the shot she had in mind.

Rosie discussed with Nhuc how she wanted her to pose to get the shot and also, and very importantly in this case, how to throw the flour around 😉

Thereafter it was the workshopers turn. At a personal 1 on 1 time with Rosie everybody got their turns to create their own shot in mind with Nhuc. She and Rosie really worked hard with the flour, throwing it absolutely everywhere to create in a lot of the cases a very fairytale feeling of smoke and mystic.

I must say… I’m truly impressed with what an intensity and acceptance Nhuc covered herself and everything around her in flour. And oh my, what a mess we created!

After the big flour fight we got another chance to create a completely different kind of shot with Nhuc posing on a sofa, keeping her feet on a huge cupcake. Although, there were of course no huge cupcake, but instead we used a bin to be in the place of the cupcake, later on shooting a naturally sized cupcake, and then later on in post-processing integrating the cupcake into the place of the bin. Clever!

After the shoots we had a post-processing session, viewing Rosie’s workflow on her computer via a projector while she described what she did, and why she did it. Thereafter, we all went to the local pub, had well deserved drinks, and finished off a wonderful day with lots of laughs, great business tips from Rosie, and also some heartfelt moments with stories from both Rosie’s life and our own.

I flew back home to Sweden the day after the workshop, completely filled with new ideas, wonderful memories, new acquaintances, and most importantly of all, a big bucket of inspiration. And if there was something I’d learned at the workshop, it was that to get the perfect shot, sometimes you just will have to really throw yourself into it….

For more shots and Rosie’s description of the day visit her blog!

Below is my image from my session with Nhuc. I wanted to create a dramatic image, contrasting with the beauty of the dress and to go in the opposite direction than the fairytale effect of the flour/smoke. The rest of the interpretation, is up to you guys.

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Our Paris in springtime

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Our Paris in springtime

April 2011. Our so well planned 2.5 week trip to Japan was of course cancelled due to the horrible tragedy that hit the east coast there a few weeks earlier. So… what emergency trip could we come up with on such short notice… during spring… not so far away… for relaxing but still a lot of fun… OF COURSE! Why not go to Paris??

Paris delivered everything you can imagine. Romance (well, of course, since I was there with Andreas), sunny days and warm evenings, trees in bloom, lots and lots of coffee at cosy cafés, great architecture, a cultural boost, wonderful food… I could go on and on. But I think I’ll show you instead!

Eiffel

Eiffel tower

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Richmond and its inhabitants

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Richmond and its inhabitants

In January 2011 me and Andreas packed our bags and took off to England for a short vacation. My personal aim for the weekend was to attend the absolutely terrific workshop by Miss Aniela and Brooke Shaden in Eastbourne. While visiting England we had the wonderful opportunity to stay at my dear friend Hanna’s place in Richmond where she lives with Paddy, the sweetest man with the most tricky accent I’ve ever heard ;-).

Richmond was a really neat an gorgeous part of London and I got the feeling that Hanna, who recently moved there from Sweden, really liked it there. And I can understand why.

Even though it was winter and freezing here in Gothenburg, the sun was beaming and spring was in the air. Strolling around Richmond was a really lovely moment in life, a welcomed pause from the ordinary life’s chores back home. Most impressed I was by the inhabitants of Richmond. Especially the fella´ below that I had the opportunity to get acquainted with, totally unexpected in the big city of London. Thank you, mr Bird, for a memorable minute.

London, stream, Themes, bridge

 

MY TIP FOR FURTHER READING! stones,From one great town to another! Check out the trip me and my class at photography school did to the awesome capital of Germany, Berlin, The City of Artist!  

 

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In da club – Birthday celebration!

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In da club – Birthday celebration!

And so it was time once more. Getting a year older. Some people say they no longer care for birthdays since they are now “so oooold”. Now THAT does not apply to me!! Well.. maybe the “so old” part, but certainly not the caring part. I just love birthdays! And my own is not exception. I’m told that I start talking about my birthday about a month in advance, not letting anybody miss that it’s coming up and behaving like a ten year old. Maybe I do, and I’m enjoying every little moment of it *giggle*. There is a Swedish saying, and it sure applies in this case, approximately like:

“You have as fun as you turn it in to”

So last weekend Andreas and I threw a party and thank you so much guys for coming and making it a fabulous time! It was a mixture of my and Andreas’s friends and you are all so adorable, kind, and fun! And on Sunday, “the big day”, I spent my birthday with an american brunch at Egg & Milk, a long autumn walk in the beaming sun and crisp fall air, and enjoying a gorgeous dinner, all in the company of my beloved Andreas. It was a beautiful day to remember, even when I turn 85 😉

As a celebration I created my latest Flickr self portrait, which appropriately is called In da club (see above). And I think you understand why. Creating it I certainly got my groove on, putting on some awesome music and shakin’ ma booty until I was scared the neighbours were gonna knock on my door.

And after all that fun I had to be a bit more serious and place out the rest of the disco balls (unfortunately I only had one that I had to turn into several) that were going to be in the main image. It didn’t take that long actually. The long part was the post processing. But I just thought about the birthday and I did it with a happy face 🙂

To end this post I just would like to say A very happy birthday to the people out there having their birthdays today! I hope you all will have a wonderful time.

PS. I got a new brain with a memory from Andreas as a birthday present, and some power to go with it.

Really, I did!

He had stuffed a plastic brain with a 16 GB memory card and a new battery for my camera 🙂

THANK YOUUUUU!!! <3

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Let’s sail away!

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Let’s sail away!

I feel like I’ve been reborn. The last year or so has been life changing, and it feels like each day I’m taking new big fresh breaths of life. Each of them I treasure, and I realize that I’ve started to have other perspectives of my presence on mother earth. And I feel the urge to put some (yeah yeah okey… a LOT) of them through the lens. I want to tell stories. Mine. Yours. The stranger’s with the crooked nose and the Russian accent by the counter at the French café. The fluffy caterpillar’s big adventure on its way through the forest of dandelions. Each fascinating story that I am lucky enough to be a spectator of.

I hope to share my stories with you. I also wish to put other aspects to them in this forum. I will use my Flickr and my website jennyjacobsson.com for my more public work, and this blog to comment and give you my views of what I create so that you know what is going on inside this whimsical head of mine. Also, I would like to share some behind-the-scenes footage to show “how I did it”, mostly for the fun of it but it would be an extra treat if it in any way would be helpful for others in their own work. Hey, I might even throw in some images from what is going on in my personal life as well. I have the optimal model victim here at home…. (don’t tell him yet 😉 ).

I stand before this blog as standing in front of the ocean. It’s big. It will surely be stormy. It will not be blue though. It’s even a bit scary. And it feels like freedom, like a fresh breeze of salty air and hundreds of new fragrances, like the huge space is there to be explored if I just jump into the boat and sail away.

So come on. Let’s sail away!

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