http://joakimbehrman.tumblr.com/

Dennis

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 11:36:11 +0100

Great short film by danish director Mads Matthiesen.

Cass Tech High School - Now and then

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 09:26:00 +0000

Stumbled upon THIS fantastic project by someone, maybe commissioned by the city of Detroit. Can’t find who did it but it’s pretty amazing. Some weird reminder that everything has an end and that nothing is permanent.

Romanticizing past journeys

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:40:36 +0000

Went through an old hard drive looking for some images and stumbled upon some old stuff that I forgot I’d taken. Images that never ended up in any story or were part of anything with context to any work. They nonetheless brought up lots of fantastic memories. The image above is from when I was traveling across Java doing some stories. I especially remember those long sticky train journeys. There was such a beauty in waking up once in a while not really knowing where the hell I was. On one ride I remember an old man speaking Bahasa with me for six hours straight, I just nodded and smiled so I guess he kept trying. Pointless blog entry this, but at least I got to post a picture and write something. There hasn’t been much of that going on here lately. I’ll try harder. Promise.

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:45:00 +0000

Got these shots backstage at Breaking News with Filip and Fredrik last Thursday.

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 15:16:13 +0100

Got these shots backstage at Breaking News with Filip and Fredrik last Thursday.

> Edward Bloom

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:33:03 +0100

> Edward Bloom

Starved for Attention

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:13:00 +0100

Image Marcus Bleasdale/VII

Two years old but still very relevant. Starved for Attention is a collaboration between VII Photo and Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). A multimedia campaign to rewrite the story of child malnutrition.

Nicolas Jaar

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:48:00 +0100

Not really photo related (apart from a nice picture of Nicolas) but this is absolutely brilliant!

Images from my ongoing project following the Swedish TV duo Filip and Fredrik can now be found...

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:00:00 +0100

Images from my ongoing project following the Swedish TV duo Filip and Fredrik can now be found here.

PressPausePlay

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:50:00 +0100

One to watch! Very inspiring but slightly terrifying at the same time. A documentary about creating in the digital era. Find more info on their website HERE.

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities.

But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?

This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

Midsummer

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:20:00 +0100

LONDON

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:22:00 +0100

I shot this a few years back, but I never did anything with it. Until today when I finally sat down and edited it together. Quite pleased with the end result!

Hope trapped in a coffin

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:28:44 +0100

I’m sitting on very hot and sticky train towards Gothenburg. Trees, fields and more trees line the tracks. It reminds me of the powerful RFK Funeral Train series by Magnum photographer Paul Fusco. It was June 8th 1968, Robert Kennedy’s body, as President Lincoln’s 103 years before, was carried by a funeral train from New York to Washington. As they had for Lincoln, many thousands - perhaps, for RFK, a million people - lined the tracks. The coffin, on a bier close to the floor of the observation car, could not be seen by bystanders. So Kennedy’s pallbearers lifted it up and placed it, a bit precariously, on chairs. Along the route of the train, Boy Scouts and firemen braced at attention; nuns, some wearing dark glasses, stood witness; housewives wept. Thousands and thousands of black people waited quietly in the heat, perhaps because they lived close to the tracks, but also because they had felt for Kennedy, and knew they would miss him.

Many Americans had believed that that President John F. Kennedy was nurturing a renewed belief in the concept of government as an enabler for all its citizens instead of blunt tool for the privileged and the powerful. Before he was able to instill that as a working principle in the American society he was gunned down by an assassin. Five years later when Robert Kennedy rose to try to reestablish a government of hope, the hearts of Americans quickened and excitement flared. Then tragedy struck again. The blow was monumental. Hope-on-the-rise had again been shattered and those in most need of hope crowded the tracks of Robert’s last train, stunned into disbelief, and watched that hope trapped in a coffin pass and disappear from their lives. Paul was on that train and shot one of the most beautiful series of images I have ever seen.

Stockholm

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:46:00 +0100

Back home in a new flat in a new city, Stockholm! My dear girlfriend landed a job in the Swedish capital, so without having much time to do anything else we managed to pack up our things in Gothenburg and move everything during four hectic days.

Recently I’ve been working with the Swedish TV duo Filip and Fredrik on their first live tour. Behind the scenes work among other things. So, for the past month I’ve been sleeping, rather well, in a submarine-like bunk of a tour bus, traveling the width and length of Sweden. It has been a fantastic journey! And as always when working with professionals in different areas, I have learnt lots. I managed to fracture my arm after a failed piggy back ride during a night out in the city of Örebro. Unfortunate, but I still ended up at the mandatory motorcycle club afterparty, with my arm in a fresh cast. So now I have lots and lots of images to sift through (with one hand), re-living an amazing journey once more. With summer just around the corner, it is indeed very inspiring and happy days!

New Years Eve 2012

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:51:52 +0000

A few months late but they made me smile when I went through them the other day, so why not share.. It was the basic setup. A 70’s style lit dance floor in a palace bang in the middle of the Thar desert by the Pakistani border. The Maharaja of Jaisalmer plying us with alcohol and music. A truly great way to start the year!

The Return of Ben Ali

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:34:00 +0000

Apartheid / Saudi Arabia

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:51:06 +0000

Lynsey Addario/VII

I read a very interesting article by Nina Åkestam the other day. She brought up the striking similarities between between South Africa’s apartheid and the situation in today’s Saudi Arabia.

Between 1948 and 1994 the apartheid laws in South Africa separated blacks and whites. They weren’t allowed to be together, they weren’t allowed to work or study together and they could not use the same entrance to public buildings. Blacks did not have the right to vote and no right to education. The ones, like Nelson Mandela, who found loopholes in the system were persecuted by the morality police and imprisoned. Many were forced to live in exile.

From a Swedish point of view one should be very proud of the role we played in bringing down the apartheid regime. Back then Sweden were getting involved. We were a country that stood up in the UN’s general assembly and told the rest of the world that we need to put an end to this, a regime can not treat people how ever they want even if they are on the other side of the globe. The South Africa Laws were put in place which made it illegal to invest and trade with the apartheid regime. The Swedish unions came together in solidarity actions and a consumer boycott from products related to South Africa was held. We were a brave little country that wouldn’t let human rights become compromised by economical interests.
Sweden’s contributions made Nelson Mandela, after his release from prison in 1990, get on a plane and fly straight to Stockholm where he held one of his first press conferences. After the fall of apartheid Mandelas party ANC had suddenly found many new friends. But where were they before when they were needed the most? Sweden didn’t care what other nations had thought in the beginning but stood up for what was right and acted on it.

So would this be the case today? If we take a look at the situation for women in Saudi Arabia. All women, regardless of age, are required to have a male guardian. Women are not allowed to vote or to have higher political positions. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving. Most public buildings have separate entrances for men and women. Segregation is particularly strict in restaurants, since eating requires removal of the veil covering their faces. The similarities are striking. So what can we make out of these statements at the Swedish Embassy in Riyadh?

Saudi Arabia is Sweden’s 19th largest market of export in the world and clearly the largest in the middle east. The country have climbed in the export statistics over the last few years due to the strengthening of the Swedish image, the visiting exchange and the continuous expansion of Swedish companies.

The annual Swedish export amounts to about 10 billion SEK (1.5 billion USD). A bilateral cooperation agreement have been established since 2004, and a Swedish-Saudi investment treaty was concluded in 2008 (…)

A new tendency is that companies choose to allocate their production to Saudi Arabia. Trioplast and Outokumpu have under 2008 opened new facilities. Another trend is that consumer companies are looking to the Saudi market. IKEA is in place since 1983, but in recent years H&M (…) have joined the ranks of consumer-oriented companies.

How can we allow ourselves to compromise fundamental human rights and what happened to the brave Sweden that stood up for wrong doings and injustice?

The Darkest Spot on Earth

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:16:00 +0000

My good friend Freddie Torberntsson made this just a few weeks before Kim Jong-Il passed away. Statistics from one of the worst human rights offenders in the world.

Hans Gedda

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:27:01 +0000

You have probably never heard the name Hans Gedda if you aren’t Swedish, infact, being Swedish wouldn’t guarantee it either. What you might have seen are some of his iconic portraits taken during the 70s and 80s. Nelson Mandela, Andy Warhol, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Bjorn Borg and the late Swedish prime minister Olof Palme are only a handful of the people that have been caught by his lens. If you know Swedish or just enjoy watching swedes talk, you can watch the full length documentary Geniet från Flen HERE. An inspiring and beautiful portrait of one of Sweden’s greatest and undeservingly unknown photographers.

GOLF WANG

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:46:43 +0000

My lovely girlfriend gave me this book for Christmas. It’s a collection of pictures from the GOLF WANG blog by the Odd Future collective with Tyler, The Creator.

Odd Future are more than a music group. It’s a collective of skaters, artists, photographers and most importantly a group of friends at the center of America’s next punk movement. The book features their photography, art and writing over the last few years. It documents their journey from the LA skateparks to the international music festivals. It is a rare glimpse into their experience, as they see it. It’s a brilliant document of time.