Gothenburg Street Photo Festival 2024

This was the fourth time that the GSPF https://www.gothenburgstreetphotofestival.com/ was held over two days 13 – 14 september. And it was my first time visiting. This year they changed venue and the event took place at Aftonstjärnan, a theatre and culture house in Gothenburg https://aftonstjarnan.se/. Lunch and dinner tickets could be bought on site wich helped us coming in from out of town a lot. So food and beers were had at the pub Port Arthur https://www.portarthur.se/.

I stayed with one of my friends Inressenten at Instagram who was also involved in running the festival. I took my ordinary commuter train from Uppsala to Stockholm and then the train from Stockholm to Gothenburg and then the local bus line that stopped just around the corner from the event location.

My instagram is here
My album on Flickr for those who are interested can be found here.

The board of the GSPF being presented on stage.

This year had 13 speakers, 4 competitions and as far as I understood ca 250 participants. The venue with a theatre was good for the talks, even if the air got a bit stuffed with so many people and long days, but there were plenty of breaks and windows were opened to air out the place. There was a small café/bar so you could get some snacks, fika, coffee, tea and beer or wine. This was also were the exhibition of the nominated images for the competitions was hosted. There was so much talent being shown. The sponsors were set up in the lobby with Sigma, Leica and Scandinavian Photo displaying their goods and doing some sales, and Crimson were sponsoring the prints for the competition.

It is a two day festival that starts on friday afternoon and then ends on saturday evening.

The festival opened a few hours after lunch but the inauguration was at 16:00 and first speaker was Eva Boije af Gennäs, Sweden, who made here premier as a speaker on her photography. Her talk was named Streetlife.

Eva Boije af Gennäs

Eva was inspiring to listen to as well as she was showing some of her really great photography. A few aspects of her talk really stood out to me, and it did turn into kind of a theme across different speakers through the festival. Some of her images made it really apparent to me how we as photographers see and capture different things and aspects of life.

Eva sees things that I dont, her work and talk made me reflect on my own photography. Mainly some of her images of women switching shoes on a night out, fixing makeup are things I simply miss. The ability of women to take photos of children is also something that is worth mentioning, as a guy I never feel comfortable taking pictures of children.

Peyman Hazheer

Fridays second speaker was Peyman Hazheer

Payman Hazheer is a swedish photographer who recently started shooting football hooligans, “raggare” – swedish cruising crews and illegal street race with an analogue leica. He has made an interesting creative journey as he left the digital world and starting using film. His process for getting contacts and begin to work a group to earn their trust so that he can gain access to take photos was really inspiring. You have to be authentic to your subject to earn their trust so that they let you in. But as he found out once you gain trust you gain access. But you also have to trust your subjects, show that you have your vulnerabilities and accept that you are going to be in situations that can be challenging but “you get the shots you deserve”.

If I remember correctly it was Peyman who introduced us to a quote by Martin Parr ”create more rubbish” that came back during the festival from several of the speakers.

Chris Harrison

The last speaker of the day was Chris Harrison from the UK

Chris Harrison is a photographer based in Brighton and he shoots most of his photography on the mile (ca1,6km) of beachfront in his presentation he showed how one can catch the traces of humans with photography. He also shared his points on how to look for and take interesting photos. One thing that I found interesting is how he can capture so much in such a limited area of the world. But also how one gets to know an area and suddenly you start noticing more things, it also increases your level of “luck”. For Chris the word ‘joy’ is guiding his photography. He also has a very interesting way of finding perfektion in his work and his creative eye.

Chris six fields of visual interest: Exploring off-season, Ordinary in new light, Humor and pathos, Visual confusion, Sense of mystery, Dreamlike reality. “Let the world tickle your heart”.

Dinner and some photos

After the presentations the festival went for dinner and beers at Porth Arthur. Me and Intressenten left and since the weather was quite nice we decided to go home on foot, which took close to an hour and involved a short trip with a commuter ferry. I was really tired when I finally went to bed at around midnight as I had been up since 6 and done quite a lot of travelling, socializing and listening to interesting talks.

Some photographs were taken on the way home to Intressenten. Gothenburg is a really good city for street photography.

The next morning we took the tram and the bus to get to Aftonstjärnan for day two of the festival. Still a bit tired, but great weather and looking forward to another great day of photography.

Misha Pedan

On saturday the first speaker was Misha Pedan Sweden/Ukraine, M for metro

Misha is from Ukraine and his talk was about the pictures he took in the metro of Kharkiv in the 1980:s. He was part of the Kharkiv school of photography a Soviet countermovement of photographic art, and he had a lot of interesting thoughts on the importance of the estetic vision of the photo once it is printed. He talked about that for the book on the images from the metro one of his students managed to find East German photo paper from the mid 1980:s that gave the right estetic when the prints were made. And it does show in the work. He talked about the difference between the western and eastern photographers in that time where the equipment was not as good on the eastern side of the wall so that they did develop a different estetic, partly because it was what they had to work with.

I did buy his book and also got it signed.

Anna Lohman

Before lunch Anna Lisa Lohman from Germany spoke on her concept of mindset magic for getting better images.

Annas talk focused on how you can create opportunities for pictures by having a positive mindset. “Be open give it a go” meaning that you have to take chances in order for your creativity to grow. By using this mantra she has moved to different countries, tried different fields and developed her skills in photography.

She has found that having a positive mindset has increased her chances to get the really good images. This can be the big things such as moving, or the small things such as going out in bad weather, just because there probably will be an image. She called it the ETC-method, Embrace The Circumstances.


Anna also offered us some tips on how to improve when you are feeling creatively drained. One challenge is to bring your camera, in your bag but you are not allowed to use it.

She also connected to a thing that Peyman mentioned – a quote by Martin Parr “create more trash”. You have to dare to take pictures that fail, it is the failure that helps you develop. I also loved Annas introduction about equipment – anything you use is the best for taking pictures.

Anna and Claes being photographed in front of the auditorium by Mats.

Lunch

A long lunch in the sun again at Port Arthur, the weather was really on the festivals side, and the food at Port Arthur was excellent. It was nice to get a decent break outside in the sun when most of the weekend was spent insidie in an auditorium. 


After lunch the Oslo Street Photo Festival announced that next years festival will be held on 23-25th of may. https://oslospc.com/

Pecha kucha

The next item on the schedule was a Pecha kucha, six photographers who show 20 images each, 20 seconds per image. All of the presenters are all members of the GGFF /Gothenburg street photo association, Julia Falk, Johan Jaurelius, Anders Johansson, Birgitta Sönsteby Herngren, Pierre Eriksson och Inger Paolo.


The format is really interesting as it forces the presenter to find a them and esence of their photography, as well as you are forced to speak in front of an audience. The presenters offerd a varied perspective on street photography. It is always inspiring to see that other photographers see, and get an insight in how they think and work. Some work in a candid way and others are more direct with their subjects. Some work with themes and others are more opportunistic when going out on the streets. It was a fun and inspiring format to watch, and it shows the width and breadth of Street photography in the association.

This was followed by Francesca Chiacchio Italy, Fill the frame

Francesca brought her estetic of how to fill the frame, without making the image cluttered. She is often close to her subjects, use a wide angle and flash. At the moment she is working a lot on different festivals where she finds that people almost are expecting, or at least accepting that they might get photographed. A lot depends on getting the right timing for the pictures.

She works a lot with collections of images to tell a story, the goal is always to take pictures that fit together but also are strong enough to be able to stand out by themselves.

Award ceremony

One fun thing with festivals are the competitions as it gives us a chance to see some really good photographers present their best work. This years categories were: colour, under 30, black and white, and collection. Here are the nominated pictures: https://www.gothenburgstreetphotofestival.com/nominerade-bilder/

You can find the winners for 2024 here: https://www.gothenburgstreetphotofestival.com/winner-competition-list/

I did enter the competition with these three images below, but I did, sadly, not win, or even get nominated. 😉

Jens Kruse

Last speaker Jens F. Kruse, Germany/Spain, Comfort Zone

Jens presentation was done in collaboration with Anna Lithander in a form of a dialogue – interview setting. Where Jens and Anna had a conversation about his photography. To start this session off Jens wife Gudrun read a poem that she wrote during the festival, in some short words she managed to catch the essence of the festival. “Say yes to life, by moving the shutter.”

Jens and Annas talk was intimate on the subject of struggle with ones fears and how to grow as an individual when you adress them.

“The art of risk, by leaving your comfort zone.” 

“By winning the fight with the fear, we get closer to ourselves and grow, you receive a deeper connection.”

Festival ending and dinner

After this last session the festival again went for dinner and beers at Port Arthur it was nice to spend time with others who enjoy the artform of street photography and really get to nerd out with others. 

Deep conversations were had about photography, cars, beer and other important things.

Day after

On sunday me and Intressenten went back to help out with cleaning up after the festival. So all in all a great experience, lots of inspiration, great art, interesting conversations, meeting people that I only knew from online.

The board of the festival looking at the images of them posing and jumping for the traditional closing shot.

Closing thoughts. 

It is interesting to see how different we as photographers view a scene, how we can look at similar situations but see different things. As well as how much of who you are will make you able to take certain kinds of pictures. It was very inspiring to see Eva and Franchescas work were they took images of children that I as a man would not feel comfortable to take those shots. Evas photos showing her observations on girlfriends helping eachother changing shoes after a long night out, a scene I would not even see.


I also found a common theme in that to take good images you have to be honest with your subjects, you have to spend time building rapport with people as Peyman talked on, learning the scene, understanding what happens in the area where you are working. In some cases this can take years as Chris showed, his eyes are tuned to the beach of Brighton which helps him see this in a new light. Michas work from Kharkivs metro is a study in the mundane and ordinary but showed in an interesting fashion. To fights ones fears is something that comes with street photography, to take pictures of unknown people in public is challenging. But to also be in front of people to speak about your art and showing it off is a different level of a challenge, it was great seeing the Pecha Kucha presenters stand up and show their work as well as seeing Jens step up to the challenge. And finally Anna with her positive mindset connects us to all of these aspects of photography, “be open, and give it a go” kind of sums it all up. 

To do street photography you have to challenge yourself, you have to give the art a go, you have to be honest with your subjects, who you are will show your eye certain things and you will take images from this, a positive mindset will help you to develop, you need to invest in honesty to your subjects to create trust, and you need to create more trash.

If you have an opportunity to visit the festival I do recommend it.

av sharingwhatisee.com

An amateur photographer in Sweden, Uppsala.

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