jenkaswe's photostream

I am: a Swede, a wife, a friend, a homeowner, a Pitt graduate, a people watcher, and a visual story teller.

Ice breakers: I wouldn't dream of starting the day without a cup of coffee. I have a weak spot for dark chocolate (ok milk chocolate too), and pinot noir. I love the thrill of exploring a new city, but also the happy feeling of sitting on a plane that is taking me home. I once invented a yoga pose called "The Swedish Meatball" that I would rather not demonstrate. I hate snakes, and am not a big fan of roller coasters―but if I do it once I can do it ten times. I love creating photos that make people laugh, get teary-eyed, or just plain happy and in love.

The long version: I grew up in the far north of Sweden―the land of the northern light and midnight sun. As a child I would pretend that I was Robinson Crusoe; I’d walk into the forest and imagine that it was my own little island. I built tree houses and learned how to drive a tractor and milk a cow. I put on a Pippi Longstocking wig and did bookkeeping like my dad. I was a poet and loved writing haiku, with its inherent minimalistic style.

After college I had the opportunity to move to Pittsburgh. My new home was a sparse version of an IKEA catalog, and as I started to think and dream in English, I began to lose my Swedish voice. One day, I bought a camera and suddenly became the person at parties that hides behind the lens. I went home to visit my family, and my brothers called me “the American tourist” as I photographed everything that was once familiar, but didn't have around me anymore. In the process of taking photos, my voice began to slowly return. Suddenly, I could express words and emotions in one exposure without having to choose a language.

The moment I knew I was hooked on photography was when a close friend of mine had a baby. I had watched her belly grow over the months of the pregnancy, and when I finally got to hold the baby in my arms only hours after the delivery, my heart just melted. While I was shooting away, his grandmother picked him up and sang a Colombian hymn. As he opened his eyes, I captured a beautiful moment of three generations together. There was so much love in the room, and I felt honored to be part of it. When the pictures were shared with the newly minted uncle in Spain and the grandfather in Colombia, I realized that capturing a person's most vital moments in life and enabling their memories to be shared with loved ones is, quite simply, the best thing in the world.


"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." - Henry David Thoreau