Agneta, who are you?
I was raised in Mölndal (outside Gothenburg), live in Mölnlycke (another suburb to Gothenburg) and today work as a bank advisor. I don’t like to idle, so aside from photography, I spend a lot of time with family and friends. As well as singing in a choir and jogging in the woods. I can never get enough from exploring the world and its inhabitants
How and why did you start with street photography?
I always like to look at older pictures, how people were clothed, what their surroundings looked like. And images of people always intrigued me. When I look back at old pictures from the nineties, I realise that I was already doing street photography, even if I didn’t call it that.
We had a theme at my photo club called “City calmness”. It triggered me to bring my camera to the city and find motifs to fulfil that theme. After that I discovered a site called Fotosidan.se, and that there is a genre called Street. In 2014 I travelled to London on the first street photography trip Mats Alfredsson arranged. After that, I was hooked.
Why do you take pictures?
I love to immortalise moments – whether they’re big or small – and to create. It is relaxing, it energises me. Meeting others is so enriching, both the unknown people in the city in front of my camera and other photographers with the same interests. The people I got to know along the way. When in company of my camera, I just never get bored.
What is your main driving force?
Meeting people, getting to know other cultures, creating stuff and learning from my role models in photography. I always want to find new challenges, to capture that perfect image – which you never stop hoping for.
Your biggest challenge?
To dare and to constantly try to develop as a photographer and a human being, unleashing my own creativity.
Your best photography memory?
Oh, they are quite a few. One I especially remember is from the analogue time. Hasselblad had a photo marathon in the early 90s in Gothenburg. We should all depict 12 themes in 12 hours. The last theme was Statue. I stood by the Karin Boye sculpture at the City Library and felt that I had nil inspiration this last hour. Just then a bunch of guys appeared – a bachelorette party! The groom-to-be was dressed as a prisoner and had a shackle around his ankle. Hm… Boye… shackle… A gift from above! I won with that picture. I had the honour of having it hung at the City Library for public viewing that summer. I’ve tried to find the man in the pictures to tell him about the win and to offer him the picture. But so far, no luck…
How would you describe your photography style?
For me, it is extra important not to offend. I want to try to get a kind of warmth in the picture, preferably with a little sense of humour. I like when I manage to capture two or more events in the same image. My goal is for the person I am depicting to like the picture and want to have it on the wall.
Do you have any preferred equipment?
I now have a Canon R house, switching between three main lenses; the Canon 50 mm, F1.4, the Tamron 24-70 f.2.8 and the Canon 70-200 f.4.
Do you have a favourite city and why?
I have several, but if I must choose one, it’ll probably be Chicago. It is a wonderful city with lovely, hospitable people. Chicago offer most of the things that trigger street photography. For example, playful Millennium Park, always teeming with children, and the dark gangster style settings around The Loop and its elevated train from 1892.
What are your hopes for the rest of this year?
I hope that I will be able to go on a trip abroad, maybe Madrid – as we planned last year, but was cancelled due to Covid-19. I long for new exciting moments to immortalise, as being satisfied with a picture makes me fuzzy all over. I also hope that my presentation at the photo festival will be appreciated, so that I can inspire someone to be as hooked as I am by street photography.
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