I HAVE LIVED MANY LIVES

I lived my life as a child; with tiled stoves, brothers, a cat and mosquitoes in a yellow, old house in the county of Värmland in Sweden. As a very shy sixteen-year-old, I lived my high school life "down south" in the United States, among Spanish moss, moist heat and crickets playing in the nights. I have been living the exciting, good life of the backpacker in southwestern Europe. And I lived in Catalonya without a phone, with a two-minute shower every other day. With goat's milk and wonderful people in the christian, ecumenical, international organization Youth With A Mission.

I lived a life in Forshaga, across the street from the photo shop where I had my first employment. I have spent months in a sailing boat of the size of a Volvo 245 (do you remember the Volvo cars?) in which I crossed the northern North Atlantic Ocean. It was the world's smallest vessel ever to cross the northern North Atlantic against the prevailing winds. In the nineties, I built a house, planted a hundred fruit trees and dug in the finest garden soil. I had a Rhodesian Ridgeback (a dog) who every day would pestere until he got me out for a walk in the mountains. I remember how the two of us would sit close together at some height, enjoying life and the beautiful view... 

I have had the privilege of singing together with a violin and a grand piano, giving concerts with music by the composer and pianist Hans B Granströms across our country. 

I have portrayed deans of cathedrals, head teachers and governors, and I have lived the suburban life of Stockholm... 

One dark winter night I got the brightest idea; I was to photograph children from my neighborhood! The next morning and following months I gathered children to have each one portrayed on an old chair next to the window in my kitchen. The work resulted in the exhibition POPIT, which stands for “Princes and Princesses in Tensta” consisting in forty black and white portraits that were to be shown during the summer of 2010 in the conexion with the royal wedding of our princess Victoria and Sir Daniel. Click on above picture to see the POPIT pictures!

Noak in Catalunya