I am so happy that so many came and visited the exhibition "The women on Meri Seif - voices from a bus", at Black Door Gallery. An unforgettable weekend with many beautiful meetings. 

On Saturday, me and Maria Hagstroem exhibit "The women on Meri Seif - voices from a bus", at Black Door Gallery, Sweden.

In Papua New Guinea, sexual violence is a humanitarian crisis. According to Human Right Watch, the country is one of the most dangerous in the world for women to live in. In the city's public buses, women are often exposed to harassment; a recent survey found that 90 percent of women in Papua New Guinea had endured harassment. As a result three women buses, Meri Seif, are driving Port Moresby's streets. They are run by the Ginigoada Foundation, supported by UN Women.

Hundreds of women travel daily on the buses, which are free and have female drivers. The travelers come from different cultures, tribes and speak various languages, but on the bus they enjoy a danger free zone together. Without the Meri Seif bus many women say they wouldn’t leave the house for fear of being harassed.

We have been travelling with the buses for a week in Port Moresby, from dawn to dusk, rush hour traffic to the sleepy afternoon. We met ladies going to the market, school girls on their way home and a woman – rejected from her family – who every day goes to get a free meal. 

So much has happened since the last post. I have been to Rwanda, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand with my friend and journalist Maria Hagstroem. I also traveled to Bangladesh again to filming, writing and taking pictures of a big cycle manifistation on International Women's Day (client - Diakonia).
In February next year, we are planning our next trip to Namibia and we hope to visit the Bijagos Islands in May, one of the world's last matriarchs. Extremly interesting. Last year my beloved father past away and it has been a very tough period. It means so much to me that he recieved the book Hanseman, which was my love declaration to him.

Recently, I was contacted by inspiring Alexandra Andersson
who has started Sweden's first and only podcast about female photographers. I had the honor to be interviewed and we had a long and interesting conversation about gender roles in the photography profession. For example, we talked about why female photographers rarely have mentioned in history and much more.
Listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-65069094

This week the travel magazine RES published a nine page long story from Madagascar, that I and Maria did one year ago. It's very rare that I'm satisfied with a job but this time it looked really good. 
Yesterday, my work on the Swedish Radio and Swedish Television ended and the life as a freelancer takes over again. I will miss all the nice colleagues but hopefully I will see them again soon.
Tonight it's time to pack the bag for a short trip to Portugal.
I and Maria will spend a few days writing about their drug policy. It will be a long story in Situation Stockholm's december issue. After that, we will start planning the next trip that goes around Lake Victoria. What have I done to deserve this job? Happiness...

Today I was interviewed by The Swedish Radio about taking pictures with the phone. Hope my tips can help someone. Here it comes:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=103&artikel=6546816

I am very honored to photograph Ilon Wikland, the illustrator of the famous author Astrid Lindgren's books. The article is for Finnish YLE and will be published in the fall. To meet such an extremely talented illustrator that meant a lot for children's literature felt special. When I suggested one of my picture ideas she looked skeptically at me and asked if the wall color really suited her salmon pink dress. She knows what she does that woman and probably she was right in my doubtful color choice. I do not know if she will like the pictures but I think I managed to capture parts of her soul. At least as I perceived her, as a intelligent woman with high integrity, pending and at the same time sensible. 
 

A couple of weeks ago my exhibition about my dad moved to NevaBooks in Rimforsa. I received a nice little review from Corren. The book and the exhibition was a love explanation to my father and I wanted to give the book to him at the 70th anniversary.


http://www.corren.se/kulturnoje/recensioner/hoppingivande-konstfoto-med-privat-blick-om4283845.aspx

In February, I went to Bangladesh with Esther Flores-Sedman where we closely watched how climate change affects the poorest people. On Sunday, the Red Cross shows a slide show that I made with stories from some of the people we met and were forced to escape from the climate.

I have always wanted to travel through the Transibirian railroad. Now i have done it. I do not really know what I had for expectations before the trip, but it was a mysterious experience. The train was quite inconvenient, and the cabins were small. Sometimes we shared a cabin with others, but we also had our own cabin with a double bed. We met people from every corner of the world, all with different dreams but with one thing in common; we all loved to travel. The train from Moscow to Irkutsk in eastern Siberia took four days. We stayed there for a couple of days at the Baikal Lake before we proceeded to Mongolia. In Mongolia, we lived in Gun Galute Nature Reserve and went on a trip before leaving Beijing. 

The last trip we met this amazing woman, Gabi Tovagyl. She worked in the tram and cooked soup on a small hotplate between the trolleys. She worked extremely hard but was happy to have a job. I sent a couple of pictures to her and I think she was pleased that someone noticed how hard she was working. A warm and nice woman I hope to see someday.