popagande festival ~ på universitetsområdet, frescativägen 14

..:: haga, stockholm ::..

broadway, off-broadway

..:: new york, usa ::..

new york city subway 1876

..:: new york, usa ::..

manhattan, new york city

..:: new york, usa ::..

fashion show, västermalmsgallerian

..:: kungsholmen, stockholm ::..

sophie zelmani's concert at nalen, regeringsgatan 74

..:: norrmalm, stockholm ::..

crowned by angels ~ storkyrkan

..:: gamla stan, stockholm ::..

golden foyer of the royal opera house ~ guldfoajen på kungliga operan

..:: östermalm, stockholm ::..

in rust we trust

..:: liljeholmen, stockholm ::..

graffiti

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

..:: kungsholmen, stockholm ::..

bars 'n' bottles

..:: furniture fair, älvsjö, stockholm ::..

..:: maidenhead, london, england ::..

sunshine

..:: kungsholmen, stockholm ::..

the knight templar ~ tempelriddaren

..:: naxos chora, greece ::..

Taken on a Naxos beach, a macro shot of "Tempelriddaren" by Jan Guillou - Swedish writer, journalist and historian. It is the second of Guillou's trilogy about the engaging history of Arn Magnusson. A saga in which Guillou blends fiction with historical facts that casts the reader back to Sweden during the eleven and twelve hundreds.

naxos diaries

..:: naxos chora, greece ::..

A scenery in Naxos Chora that thousands of people have passed: the wind that blows through an installation outside a dress shop...

No. 658

cheese and olives from naxos

..:: naxos chora, greece ::..

october rust

..:: holmahult, småland ::..

bunge open-air museum, northern gotland ~ bungemuseet, friluftsmuseet på norra gotland

..:: bunge, gotland ::..

medieval candy

..:: visby, gotland ::..

Shot during the annual Medieval Week in Visby where this lady in red sold traditional candied apples dipped in sugar.

Gotland is a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Its main city is a Hanseatic town named Visby which has been on Unesco’s World Heritage List since 1995. Every year in week 32 Visby turns into a festive town displaying medieval markets, handicrafts and even most of Visby's inhabitants tend to dress themselves in medieval clothing.

the hultsfred festival ~ hultsfredsfestivalen

..:: hultsfred, östra småland ::..

toilet slaves

..:: barcelona, spain ::..

With Casa Milá on my right side, the design shop which had this installation set up in its shop-window could be found on the left... When looking around in this store I ran into the residential quarter of this masked population and smiled... Wondering if Gaudí would have been pleased with these rubber neighbours ;-)

casa milá by antoni gaudí

..:: barcelona, spain ::..

Barcelona’s most famous and brilliant modernist architect, Antoni Gaudí, built his best works in this city. This detail is from the entrance of Casa Milá, just one of the numerous interesting sites by Gaudí. Very Jugendstil-ish and organical shaped, so characteristic for Gaudí's style.

batlló house by antoni gaudí

..:: barcelona, spain ::..

The Batlló House is an apartment building located at No. 43 Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. Antonio Gaudí designed both the outer parts as well as the inner parts of this colourful building.
Although this night shot of the Batlló House did not become as colourful as a picture taken in the day-time it does reveal some interesting details of its living room. The pilars, the wooden panels on the left and the right that are part of the whole window frame on the inside...

house of the pulley-block maker ~ blockmakarens hus (i)

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

"Blockmakarens hus", the house of the pulley-block maker is named after the profession of Gustaf Andersson who once lived in its upper apartment at Stigbergsgatan 21.

It is build on a mountain called Stigberg. During the fifteen and sixteen hundreds this mountain was known as Galgberget, the mountain of gallows. From far away -even from the ships that entered Stockholm during the medieval times- one could see the convicts hanging at these gallows on top of this mountain in order to send out a warning signal that one shouldn't commit any crimes in Stockholm... Or else...
The housing area's former name Justitia still reminds of the existence of the gallows in older times...

Though the house is build during the seventeen hundreds, I would like to start its history in 1875 when a man called Gustaf Andersson moved into this house. He was a man of crafts and made pulley-blocks. Do not forget to set your mind back a few centuries, to a time in which there was a great need for pulley systems used on for instance ships to mount the sails...

...Thus rented Gustaf this room and shared the kitchen with the owner of the house. Later he got married with the owner's daughter Anna Catarina and lived with their two sons in the upper apartment of the house. To understand how small their housing facilities actually were, one really has to visit "House of the Pulley-blocks Maker".

There you will find this room at the upper level with its window adjacent to the street level. This picture represents a corner of Gustaf's workshop and is in fact also the room in which he slept.

house of the pulley-block maker ~ blockmakarens hus (ii)

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

Blockmakarens hus contains two apartments. The upper one being 51 square meters for a wealthy family of four including a small cabinet that was used for renting out to for instance sailors... Or drunks... Or drunken sailors...

house of the pulley-block maker ~ blockmakarens hus (iii)

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

In 1916 around Christmas another family moved into the lower apartment only being 22 square meters large. In those times Stockholm was troubled with a serious housing facility shortage and it was therefore rather common that poor families like Emilia Gustafsson, her husband Gustaf Adold Gustafsson and their four daughters could not afford a larger habitation.

On January the 9th in 1917 Gustaf Adold Gustafsson died because of a lung disease leaving his wife expecting their fifth child...

In July 1917 Emilia gave birth to her fifth child. A boy whose father, Gustaf Adolf Gustafsson, died six months before his birth, just shortly after the family had moved into the cellar parts of Stigbergsgatan 21. During the nights the youngest was kept warm by her mother who slept in a small bed in the kitchen.

This room -approx. 10 square meters- is part of the lower apartment counting 22 square meters and has been the habitation for the widow Emilia and her children in the beginning of the nineteen hundreds. The photo album lying on the table shows a picture of Emilia.

The sewing-machine and the items around it still echoes one of the tough ways Emilia tried to gather the money she needed for the rent and to support her children. Next to the sewing-machine stands a wooden bench that could be extended to a bed in which Emilia's four daughters used to sleep.

house of the pulley-block maker ~ blockmakarens hus (iv)

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

The winters in Sweden can be extremely cold. This house was located on a mountain and therefore it was possible that the exhalation of this family turned into ice that could be found on walls and windows. Just imagine how this family lived in poverty.

All this in contradiction to Gustaf Andersson's living conditions. Since 1917 he owned the house at Stigbergsgatan 21 and he was considered to be a man of wealth. In 1919 he lost his wife Anna Catarina and another man, a railway constructor, moved in with him in the upper apartment of Blockmakarens hus.

Emilia and her children lived six years in this house. Her jobs kept her from being at home taking care of the five children. It must have been a tough live, also with having four young girls in the same house as where often numerous men drank too much alcohol in the apartment upstairs... Easily being able to take advantage of these unattended children.

The children managed well during these unbearable years and survived the strong winters with temperatures under -20 degrees. In 1923 Gustaf Andersson hanged himself in his upper apartment, probably due to a combination of the loss of his wife Anna Catarina and alcohol problems.
Emilia was not able to get the upper apartment of the former wealthy owner because of another family that moved in. Moreover her own small apartment was declared unsuitable for habitation because of the extreme bad state of its housing conditions -rotting amongst others- and she moved to Folkungagatan 168.

house of the pulley-block maker ~ blockmakarens hus (v)

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

But even stories filled with tragedy and poverty sometimes ends well...

Eventually, in 1952, Emilia was able to move back to her Stigbergsgatan 21. She didn't move back to the cold cellar apartment but instead she lived happily in the upper apartment that so long was owned by families of wealth.

the pottery ~ krukmakeriet

..:: djurgården, stockholm ::..

This house originates from the early eighteen hundreds and moved to the outdoor museum Skansen in 1947. The woman on the right is showing old handicraft related to the name of the house.

country manor of skogaholm ~ skogaholms herrgård

..:: djurgården, stockholm ::..

One of the bedrooms inside the mainbuilding of "Skogaholms herrgård", the Country Manor of Skogaholm.

The whole estate has actually been moved from the province Närke -one of the smallest provinces in Sweden where in the 1680's people started building it- to its current location at the outdoor museum Skansen in Stockholm.

Skansen is founded in 1891 and contains about 150 houses of cultural and historical value moved from their original locations spread over Sweden in order to represent a part of Sweden's history.

stockholm's art fair in sollentuna

..:: sollentuna, stockholm ::..

medieval visby

..:: visby, gotland ::..

Visby was once a powerful Hanseatic port and its medieval wall is one of Europe’s best-preserved structures from the middle Ages. It was also put on Unesco’s World Heritage List as a unique cultural treasure. This picture dates from the Medieval Week in August 2001, during my first visit to Gotland, an island in the Baltic Sea situated off the south-east coast of Sweden.

Gotland was first discovered by a man named Tjelvar. At that time the island was bewitched so that it sank into the sea by day and rose again at night. But after Tjelvar brought fire to the island, it never again sank.

This is the account of the Guta Saga, a history of Gotland put down in writing in the 13th century. A visit to this unique place on earth will certainly tempt your mind to cast back in time.

stigbergsgatan

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

Charming old house at Stigbergsgatan, a name that the street was given in 1885. The street itself however is much older and was known as Katarina östra qvarngränd. A name that dates back to 1674.

ode to cokins gradual filters no.121 and no.124

..:: djurgården, stockholm ::..