Life can be really funny sometimes. I think we did this interview with Christian Göran back in 2013 vie e-mail, and a year or so after, I happen to run into him in a bar in Stockholm. I took the opportunity and introduced myself, and Christian was very kind and talked with me while I waited for my friend that was running late. I mentioned it would be fun to do a follow up interview, and until that (hopefully) happens, here is what this photographer and model had to share with us.
Tell us a bit more about yourself…
I’m an artist currently based in Stockholm, Sweden.
We read on your website that as a child you felt as an outsider. Do you feel that the camera helped you integrate, or was it more like a shield?
I think it works both ways. Now I’m able to be an observer, putting a camera as a shield between me and the world around me. But at the same time I’m integrating when I can afterwards show photos from the moment I was capturing.
Do you believe in the expression “A picture is worth 1,000 words”? If yes, why?
No, I don’t. A thousand words well put together can touch my soul far more than many pictures I have seen.
What type of camera do you use? If you had to choose one lens which one would it be and why?
I use any analogue camera that I get my hands on, but so far it’s only been with 35mm. I would love to try another type of format. Lately I have also started to work a lot with digital. Both digital and analogue have their advantages. I would work with a 50mm lens, I think.
In your opinion, what makes photography an art?
It’s a form of expression. A photograph can be abstract or very direct, it can give a message, hidden or obvious, it can tell the truth, hide it or even lie. I believe it can make the viewer able to feel what the artist felt. A window to the soul.
Do you see any link between the life of a pilot, the one as a photographer and the one as a model? Tell us a bit more about how life took you from one profession to another…
I was very creative when I was young, but my creativity was always channeled at drawing airplanes and building models, completely crazy about aviation. It was when I got older and entered an art school at the age of 25 that the possibilities of my creativity was revealed. After this I didn’t have much motivation to keep on flying, I had been doing it for ten years and I started to get tired of it. Photography is just the medium of expression I’m working with mostly at the moment. Modelling was just a coincidence, someone phoned me and asked me if I wanted to be a model right after I quit flying, and after that I started to get jobs as a model instead.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
My dream is to be doing underwater photography full time. So in 5 years from now I’m sitting on a ship somewhere, following the migration routes of Beluga whales. Being close to the ocean is what I want.
Something you’re still learning? What is your biggest fear?
I’m learing a lot everyday. My biggest fear is to lose my motivation or passion for life. This is a difficult lifelong lesson, to learn how to let go of my fears I guess.
What is your most marked characteristic? And the quality you most like in a man?
Hard to answer that question myself. The quality I like the most with any person is honesty, to him/herself and to everyone else.
What motivates you to do what you do? What is your motto?
The satisfaction of creating something is the motivation. I have several mottos, maybe I can name two. One is that you can only regret what you never did and the second one is no lies just love. The last one I have tattooed to my arm, so I will never forget it.
What is your idea of happiness? Do you remember the moment in your life you felt the happiest?
Accepting the present completely. I remember a period in my life when I was able to do this. I learned a lot about life at this time.
Are there any talents you don’t have and would like to posses?
To be able to hold my breath for one hour. 😉
Favourite movie/book/artist/band? Where do you usually look for inspiration?
Favourite movie would be Himmel Über Berlin, or Incendies.
Book would be The Master and Margarita.
I get inspiration from nature and impossible thoughts of the infinite.
What are your favorite places in Stockholm, what would you recommend to our readers to visit?
I like the museum of photography in Stockholm. It’s a very nice place to sit and work, look at photography, hangout in their bookshop or just sit and look out over Stockholm in the café.
This interview was done in March 2013. All the photos are by Christian Göran. For more visit his website.
