AxelHammarback.com - Photo reel

Hey! I'm so glad you've found this place. I've been working a few days now to compile this gallery - and believe me when I say its been way overdue. But now its finally here, and I can't tell you enough how pleased I am with it. It is with great pride I display all of this, and I just hope you like what I've done

The hardest thing about all of this was to make the final selection. I mean, its over 50 pictures just here, and its just a miniscule fraction of what I'd like to show. Another difficult task was to create variation - I shoot pretty much everything from music, to documentary photography, to portraits, parties, events, nature, food and drinks, to more creative stuff. And I wanted to include the whole spectrum, if you will. And I think I managed to pull it off.

Future plans for this site is to open up more galleries by topic, but I can't spare time to begin with that project just yet. So you'll have to do with this one for now. Anyway, enough talking - feel free to look through the gallery, and drop me a comment if you feel like it!

/ Axel Hammarbäck - freelance graphics designer and photographer
mail:axel.hammarback@gmail.com
cell: +4670 69 100 93

My rock star brother, Eric Rivers, who plays guitar in the AOR group H.E.A.T. Awesome show at small rock club Garage in Märsta.

My oldest brother Anders, posing next to a parking meter in Sundsvall. We took the night train and got there real early, so we just walked around for some time, trying to find shelter against the blistering cold. We finally found a tennis hall where we hung out for a while.

Good friend Joel, at Slussen in Stockholm

Taken at 'Modell för en helg', organized by the one and only Muddi. Its him and our chef extraordinaire - Olle - posing in this picture.

I work as a party photographer (vimmelfotograf) every now and then, and this was probably the most fun gig I've had. With slippery foam everywhere and an expensive camera around your neck, you'd best be careful where you tread!

Ah, man, this was a fun project. Also at 'Modell för en Helg' (model for a weekend) in Kalvsvik, I had this idea with zombies I wanted to shoot. Got some great help from David Sandell and Robert Purvins with lighting and creative brainthrust, from Jackie and Angie with makeup, and of course, Jackie, Carl, Marwan, Jakob, Jennie, Anders, and Adam for being ragingly mindless and blood thirsty. And from Lilly, who's posing as the innocent girl about to get fed on.

From Paris. Crêpes come in all shapes and colou... oh wait, no, only round and beige. But you can get all kinds of toppings, from mushrooms, ham, shrimp, cheese, to more dessert-like crêpes with peanut butter, banana, chocolate, or just a plain crêpe au beurre avec sucre - crêpes with butter and sugar.

This is one of those pics where I can take but a small part of the credit - I felt like I was just a guy who happened to be at the right place and right time with a camera. Robert and David had set up this shot with Elsa - from lighting, to the fan, to the chair - and were just wrapping up theirs, when I got asked if I wanted to take a few shots. I thankfully accepted, and had a shoot lasting a few minutes.

I had the priviliege of shooting at Accelerator Festival in 2008, where this band played. Hercules and Love Affair, who had a big with 'Blind' featuring Antony Hegart the same year. I knew nothing of the band, and while their music didn't catch on to me, they were fun to shoot!

I love Paris. I really do - its one of those cities you can visit as many times as possible, and still fell you want more. Anyway, this was taken in March 2008, at a trip with my parents. HDR shot, two exposures.

Good friend and great model Jennie, at an uprooted tree

Man, I love Paris. I mean, where else could you possibly find this perfect scene? An old woman, holding a small girl in a pink jacket, holding a pink balloon. Its like a scene taken from a Jean-Luc Godard film.

This rocking chap is Denis, a good friend of mine who plays guitar in the hardcore band The Last Exile. He's always flailing about on stage, so the fisheye really did him justice. They made it to the finals of prestigious music competition 'Musik Direkt' earlier this year (2009) - go tLE!

While on a trip with the MFEH gang, Jackie found this big scythe-looking thing in the woods, so I wanted to take a pic with some kind of 'Last Mohican'-esque theme. I mean, not that mohicans used these long saw-blades, but y'know. Or maybe they did, who knows? Marwan kindly posed.

Picture spawned by boredom!

Pic taken in Flogsta, Uppsala - where me and my band Komposters had a gig later that night. This was one of our opening acts; Andy Planck. The gig was sort of a charity gig thing to raise money for the funding of the gym floor. Trust me, it was needed!

Oh man, oh man, it was an intense gig the likes of which I've rarely seen. Thousands and thousands of screaming, ravaging fans in the crowd, moshing and crowd surfing and whatnot. And... me, with my camera, running around in the crowd, trying to find safe spots where I could take some pictures.

Apart from the shadow cast by her nose, I was really pleased with how this turned out! I drew and cut out a scary monster (which I later realized looked pretty mch exactly like Oogie Boogie from Tim Burton movie A Nightmare Before Christmas), went out with Elsa and two assistants (Muddi and Gustav - big thanks!), strapped a green gel filter on a SB-800 flash which I bounced off the wall with the cardboard cut-out inbetween, and another external flash from the right side, lighting up Elsa.

Took this snapshot of my dad at the Rodin Museum, hence the sloppy 'Ro-dad' title!

I had the priviliege to attend and shoot The Hives' secret gig in the small town of Fagersta. I was at the very front of the crowd, and man, what a blast. Quite literally - there was me, juggling two lenses (a fisheye 10,5mm/2.8, and 50mm/1.8), a Nikon D300, while dodging everything from flying fists to guitars and sweaty bodies. All while trying to take some pictures, and of course, enjoying the show! And I so did.

Skellefteå Kraft Arena. My brother and his band H.E.A.T entered in Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen in early 20009, where the winner gets a place in Eurovision Song Contest. Its a really big thing in Sweden, and it was an awesome weekend!

I was shooting an independent movie based on the G.I. Joe series, but then some Hollywood execs found out, muscled me out, and now they're releasing a big blockbuster version this summer. Coincidence? I think not!
Ok, none of that was actually true, I just got an idea of mixing the action figures with people.

Ten points to whoever spots the computer game which influenced the title! Anyway - two exposures; one of the moon, and one of the sky. Patched together in Photoshop.

HDR photograph in Steninge, Märsta. Three exposures, probably.

H.E.A.T, after winning the semi finals of Melodifestivalen.

Ok, I probably have. Anyway, a fairly old picture, just got this crazy idea when walking in the forest one day if I could warp myself into a tree.

Paris, just outside of Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre, there was this seemingly tireless guy who just stood on the pillar and did the most amazing football tricks. During the hour we were there, we only saw him drop the ball like two or three times.

I do have somewhat of a fetish for shooting skies, I've always been fascinated by clouds.

This was pretty much the first time I ever met Jackie, and pretty much the first time she was in front of the camera. She quickly adapted to it though, and we had a great shoot down by the water.

I love to cook, and I have ever since I was left home alone for an entire summer. This is a vegetarian dish, its sort of a variation of 'Flygande Jacob', which originally has chicken instead of quorn filées, bacon, and peanuts.

Jakob, probably the most fun model I've shot with. Even though the water was freezing, he didn't hesitate stripping down and swimming out to the rocks.

Extremely fierce photographer Angie Belle Bergenwall proved that quantum tunnelling no longer is just a postulated theory.

My dawg always gets excited when the first snow falls in Sweden. Hell, me too!

While backpacking through Europe for ten days with three friends, we saw a stop in Amsterdam as a 'must do', just for the sake of a RLD visit alone. And it was an extremely surreal experience, and while I could write a few words about it, I feel you really have to 'be there' to really understand.

Fantastic singer and overall awesome person.

Lovely band from Denmark, has a unique and wonderful sound. Shot them at Debaser Medis in late 2007.

Yet again, my dog Marvin. HDR shot.

Okay, its most likely not. I don't know what the B is for, to be honest. Anyway, I was writing an article about adolescents, what they do on their spare time, and if its them or their parents' who gets to decide their extracurricular activities.

Picture shot during a trip to Cinque Terre (beautiful place, google it) in Northern Italy. It was a three hour bus trip from Pavía, and during, us Swedes on the trip got to know some great people! Like this guy, whose name I've unfortunately forgot :(

Also taken in Pavía, in the ITIS Cardano school.

One of my favourite places in the world, its so... soothing. If I ever meditated, this would be the place to do it.

A guy from Samsung held a talk - don't ask me about what, I really can't remember (good talk!). If I were to get all over-analyzing, I'd say the picture represents "humanity's desperate outreach for compassion and love where more and more things are being digitalized today. But can the heart really be digitalized?". I don't know, I just think its a good picture.

On my way to the annual IT-Gymnasiet Lucia volleyboll tournament with the students and teachers.

Picture taken i Söderbärke. Heavily edited - turned into B/W, lowered contrast a lot, and applied a texture to make it more 'old timey'

Title translates into 'Gay devil', and its sort of common phrase in Swedish, unfortunately degrading. I had no such intentions with the title, for the record! Anyway, pic taken during the Pride parade which takes place in Stockholm at the end of the summer every year.

HDR shot of Marvin, I actually think he's marking his territory in this pic. Sorry for ruining the magic!

My train from Sundsvall to Stockholm (~500 km distance) was departing in ~ten minutes, but before I could leave, I just had to run off to take this picture. I felt like an action hero when I ran down to this big field to get a clear view of this facility, while running against the clock to catch the train in time. I barely did, and I got the shot I wanted too.

During a small tour with my band Komposters where we played at Visionsfestivalen i Umeå, in northern Sweden. We also spent a few days in a house in Örnsköldsvik where we were fishing, cooking, relaxing, and just hanging out with each other.