Johan: Stockholm

196 x 200 narrative

In 2007 I was a lost boy. I quit my job, was searching for the meaning of life and was struggling to find somewhere to settle down. Gothenburg was not my city, neither was Barcelona. I ended up in Stockholm, the city I had earlier in my life put a huge line through and said “I´ll never ever move there, too hectic.” But then all my friends seemed to move there, so I did too. After a few weeks on a friend’s couch I met a guy in a bar who said he had an apartment he was giving up. I had zero-dot-zero ideas on the structure of the city but just said, hell yeah, I want it. I stayed there for four years and loved every moment, and that neighbourhood really got into my heart. After four years away from it we (Amy and our newborn Ben) decided to move back there. That was a great decision, and my heart belongs there. I took this photo on my very first day back in the hood, as the sun was rising between the buildings. My gaaawd, my obsession with shooting at sunrise and sunset will never disappear. And Hornstull will always be home in Stockholm.

Johan: Cape Town

200 x 183 narrative

Having a car has always given me a sense of freedom. For about 10 years I didn’t have one, so it was thrilling for me to be behind the steering wheel of a jeep again when I got it a few years ago. From my very first visit to Cape Town in 2011 I have a strong memory from when we passed over the neck at Lions Head, four boys in a rental car playing Adele’s (well, the radio did) “Rolling in the deep”. The beats were getting to me and in that moment it was the best song in the world. The sun was setting, we had a sweet night coming up and life as a single boy on the other side of the world was rocking.

Being back in Cape Town these days, with a South African girlfriend who´s also the mom of my child, brings out emotions and make me walk down memory lane a lot. For example, every time I pass that hill with the jeep I’m reminded of that special moment with my friends and how life after that changed completely, in a wonderful and very unexpected way.