February 16, 2007

February: Vincent Skoglund,
Photographer

He’s one of Sweden’s most sought after photographers and he might be the only white guy with a signature shoe model. Meet creative genius Vincent Skoglund - a man with a light bulb constantly glowing over his head.

Let there be light.

After five years in London Vincent Skoglund is back in his native country. He has cut down a bit on his 300-days-a-year travel schedule, but that doesn’t mean his less busy. He has just recently finished his most important photo project so far, the Adicolor exhibition with Adidas. The work did not only earn him a place in photographer’s heaven, it also got him his own signature shoe model – design Vincent Skoglund.

It all began after high school in the small town of Falun. As a young wannabe photographer with a passion for snowboarding, Vincent was faced with two options.

On the one hand he could choose the beaten path: move to Stockholm and become a photo assistant to some established photographer. That would be the wise choice.

On the other hand he could move to the Swedish ski resort Åre, get some shitty part time job and snowboard as much as he liked. That would be the unwise choice.

Of course Vincent made the unwise choice. And as you probably already guessed it turned out to be a good choice.

As soon a he had moved in to his small apartment in Åre he built his own photo lab in a wardrobe and started photographing on the mountain. Five years later, in 1999, he was voted the best snowboard photographer in Europe and everybody on the snowboard scene knew his name. He was suddenly doing the most prestigious and well paid jobs in the industry. From there, the step to becoming an all-round outdoor photographer was not very long. Soon he was doing campaigns for global sports brands like Nike and Adidas. Today Vincent is a renowned broad spectrum photographer with over 100 magazine covers on his resume. He’s doing everything from fashion to landscape, mostly for commercial and editorial use, but also for art galleries and exhibitions. However, his heart is still stuck in the rugged mountain back country – on the powdery snowboard scene which subcultural aesthetics he helped form during the nineties. It was as a snowboard photographer the struggling board bum from Falun made himself a name internationally and it was on the mountain he acquired his unique style.

Even though he’s doing almost any type of photography nowadays, being all-round is not the advice he would give to young aspiring photographers.

- The competition is so hard out there. It’s better to find your own niche and stick with it for a while.

What other advice would you give to someone who wants to become a photographer?

- It’s a lot about understanding the technical side. It’s important to know this from the beginning and to accept the fact that it is a long journey. When I started out I thought that photography was something you learnt and then you just knew how to do it. Now I understand that I’m still learning – 15 years later. I think the best advice is the simplest one: get out there and take a lot of pictures. Find your own style and do not spend too much time in front of the computer.

Is it a very competitive business?

- It depends. On some jobs the situation can be extremely competitive. The first time I worked with Burton they had gathered several photographers and there were essentially no clear instructions for the job. It was more like: here are the riders, here is the site – start working and may the best man win. We photographed for ten days and I worked so hard that I got a really bad fever at the end. So surely there's a competitive side to the profession, but in my case that’s not what drives me. For me, photography is about communicating something.

Do you enjoy working on large commercial projects like that or is it mostly frustrating?

- I mostly enjoy it. It’s exciting to work in big projects when there are many people involved. I’ve done four Nike campaigns. Many times there is a lot of drama and intrigues, which is sort of fun. Moreover, the focus is generally on quality instead of quantity – which is good. You only have to get a few pictures, but they have to be perfect.

What’s your career high light?

- Definitely the Adicolor project for Adidas. The job was to travel around the world and photograph 21 different people in 12 different cities. There were no art directors and no precise instructions. It all resulted in a travelling exhibition with a hundred pictures. And as a bonus I got to make my own signature shoe at the end.

See the pictures at Adicolorbyvincent.com

Is design something that you would consider working with in the future?

- Not really, I’ve designed a couple of snowboards for Capita Snowboards, but I’m a photographer, that’s what I do.

So, what are your plans for the future then?

- I’ve broadened my niche as a photographer and I will continue to do so, but my base as a photographer will always be in the mountain culture. I get jobs because I understand movement and sports as well as people and fashion. Today I would say that I do 40 percent snowboard and skiing. The rest is fashion, exhibitions and projects like Adicolor. I think that’s a good combination, but maybe I will travel a little less in the future.

You claim to understand fashion and as photographer you must have seen a lot of different styles. So my final question is: What is style? Please enlighten us.

- I like unexpected combinations and people who have the guts to take chances. In Sweden fashion is way too homogeneous, which is kind of boring. Apart from that, the most inspiring thing when it comes to style, is people that have style without being aware of it. Like my dad for instance. You can see that he chooses he’s clothes carefully, but still he’s truly unaware of the fact that he has style. I’ve tried to copy him, but that’s impossible. You have to be him to get it right. On the other hand, the biggest turn off is when people try to look like they’re unaware of their appearance, but still you can see from a mile away how hard they try.

Recipe for men’s man of the month in February

Name: Vincent Skoglund.

Age: 33.

Occupation: Photographer.

Family: Girlfriend.

Vanity level: 4.5 - Vincent has a great eye for style and a big nose for fashion. The day he has figured out how to wear his father's clothes he will be a sure 5.0.

Enjoys on his spare time: Badminton, tennis, climbing and drawing.

Most beautiful city on earth: Tokyo.

Looks up to: Ed Burtynsky (Canadian landscape photographer specializing in photographing humanity's influence on the landscape.)

Recommends: Tedtalks

The world’s most beautiful man: My assistant Carl is exceptionally good looking - especially when he's walking through the forest carrying a large format camera with the light coming in from behind him.