This is my choice of set of pictures for a small exhibition I’m invited to do, at a local restaurant in Borås, Sweden – Tonys restaurang. Twelve images, eight black and white, four in color. These twelve pictures – no more, but maybe less. All starting Friday 19th of May.
This is the short story behind each picture.
- “My playground” is taken at de Dam in Amsterdam, where this little kid was slowing moving around, with lots of pigeons. Her mother was right there too, feeding the birds. And just smiling at the people taking pictures of her and her child.
- “Night calling” is taken an early night outside a London pub. The guy saw me just as I took the picture. On of the first street photographies I’ve ever taken abroad.
- “A beer moment” is taken a late afternoon att a genever bar near the train station in Amsterdam. It seems like the bar was this man’s favourite place, where he went after work on his way home. I think he was waiting for someone. And yes, the genever doesn’t taste that great.
- “Through it all” I took into a underground car in London, just as it was picking up speed. She saw me all the way and never stopped her stare. I first made this in colour, but the poster behind her was to disturbing. In black and with it turned our better.
- Walking on a pedestrian street in Amsterdam, someone shouted at me: “Take his picture”, as he pointed at this fella on the others side of the street. I walked up to him, as he held out his finger and posing – unplanned and fun, us both laughing afterwards.
- I stood in a long archway in Berlin, waiting for people to walk into the right light. After just about 20 minutes he came from the other side, stood in front of me, bent down and looked straight into my camera. Then he stood up and said: “I think you take pictures.” Yup, I got som frames as he looked into my lens.
- Outside Green Park in London I saw the tired young man sitting and rolling his cigarette. Maybe he had slept on the very same park bench that he now sat on?
- From Gothenburg, at Brunnsparken. I looked more at the seagulls as she came towards me quite fast. Managed to get a nice shot as the birds kinda fled from her.
- It was a very hot weekend in early June in Berlin. At the large fountain on the other side of Fernsehturm from Alexanderplats a lot of kids had assembled. Suddenly the water in the fountain came to life and the two girls inside hurried out.
- By a bus stop a late night in Gothenburg, where she looked slightly lost as she wondered what bus would take her home.
- Back in Berlin I saw this beautiful woman quickly approaching on the sidewalk. I only had time for one shot, and it wasn’t perfect. Or is it?
- Trams in Gothenburg are nice. You get reflections, movement and depth at the same time. And people that sometimes are dozed off, sometimes quite aware of the surroundings… This time I just waited for the woman to look straight at me.
GFN Street Photography 