THE COMPANY:
At Joachim Lundgren Photography we help clients to communicate through images, creating strategic photography. Numerous awards demonstrate that our photography stands out from the mainstream. Our intellectual approach always begins by posing the questions needed to create a successful editorial photo essay or corporate communication.
All communication implies a language that can be perceived and interpreted by others. Over 70 percent of all impressions that we comprehend are not spoken, nor written - but visual
We implement the strategy of photography into the client's brand identity, helping both international and local clients to create effective corporate image databases. Joachim is represented by Söderberg Agentur.
RESUME:
Joachim completed his military service at the Swedish Army Magazine and went on to study at Poppius school of Journalism and Berghs school of Communication. He also took part in war correspondent training, Surviving Hostile Regions with AKE group.
From 1996 to 2002 he worked as a staff photojournalist at Scandinavia's largest daily, Aftonbladet, covering news and events all over world.
He has covered international stories such as the war in Afghanistan, conflicts in Kashmir, elections in South Africa and many other social issues spanning the continents of the world.
Joachim has received much recognition for his work including several Picture of the Year awards in Sweden and Norway as well as the Euro Press Photo award, and the Picture of the Year International (POYI award).
His work has appeared in magazines and newspapers worldwide including Värnpliktsnytt, Financial Times, Time Magazine, Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Le Figaro Magazine, Conde Nast Traveller, Le monde, Stern, Venti Quattro Magazine, Il Mundo Magazine, The Economist, Liberation, Aftonbladet, Veckans Affärer, and Verdens Gang.
AWARDS:
2005
Norwegian Picture of the Year, Nature and the Environment
2004
Picture of the year International, Magazine Division, Portrait
Swedish Picture of the Year: International Story of the Year
Norwegian Picture of the Year, International Story of the Year
2003 Swedish Picture of the Year 2003
International Picture of the Year
International Story of the Year
EPPA European press photo awards, portrait (national)
2000 Swedish Picture of the Year, Everyday Life
1999 Swedish Picture of the Year, Portrait
1998 Swedish Picture of the Year, Feature
Swedish Picture of the Year, Portrait
1997 Swedish Picture of the Year, News
Swedish Picture of the Year, Feature
Selected "Creator of Public Opinion of the Year" by the environmental organisation for the Baltic Sea (together with Jan Helin and Niklas Bodell)
STAFFAN HEIMERSON:
I looked squarely at my colleague the photographer. We were in the midst of
war-torn Kashmir. It was a cold winter.
After a day of meetings with snipers and stone-throwers, we were tired and
checked in at the capital's only acceptable hotel. What acceptable meant was
that there was running water, but there was no heat, the electricity was
rationed and the bar's most powerful drink was Fanta. The hotel, high up in
the Himalayas, had the unlikely name…the Broadway.
In the dark dining room, I saw the photographer search in the pocket of his
parka and take an action that made me appreciatively murmur: "He will do. He
has the right stuff." Because indoors, Joachim Lundgren - that was the
photographer's name - put on his gloves. He was preparing for a proper meal
including good manners - a dinner of tasty but mild soup, Mulligatawny, with
lentils, garlic, coconut milk and yogurt.
"Good day we had," said the photographer. "And the soup is hot. But it's a
little cold inside here. "
"However, it’s above freezing," I said. "The thermometer at the reception
desk showed a reading of two degrees plus Celsius.”
That day, like any good reporter’s day in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar,
included a brief and totally unnecessary battle between the Indian central
government troops and stone-throwing youths. This stemmed from a perpetual
(now sixty-four year old) conflict regarding the mountain countrys
status. The Muslim population has some autonomy but at the same time is
forced to remain under the mainly Hindu Indian rule. The result is a mixture
of condescension and ethnic tensions, history and religion that makes
Kashmir for the big India “a pebble in your shoe” much in the same way that
Tibet is for the great China.
The swarthy children, in ripped jeans and worn sneakers, thought they had
reason to be angry that day. It was a holiday and they wanted to play
cricket. The planned match was Assar Cricket Club against Friends Cricket
Club. The match was destined to take the whole day. But it ended after only
twenty minutes. It was not the referee's whistle which broke up the friendly
match between local rivals. It was the military police shooting their AK47s
into the air.
Assar's boys and Friends had committed the crime of noting that Kashmir
University's large green open spaces were suitable as a cricket field for
the day as they stood empty, and then, without first having procured the
formal authorization, they began to play on the newly christened pitch.
The University’s dean immediately called in the military police. Uproar
ensued. The boys ran into the streets. The police officers followed. A fight
followed. Police began by firing their automatic weapons and releasing tear
gas grenades. The boys threw stones with pinpoint accuracy as if bowling,
which they practiced in their gentlemanly sport of cricket.
Lundgren was right between them all the while. He directed his Canon
sometimes against police guns, sometimes against the fleet-footed school
boys. The fighting moved down towards the beautiful but smelly lake and its
grand but decaying house boats. I noted police arrests and black eyes.
Lundgren got it all on film.
In the midst of all this action, I thought about what it is that makes a
photographer rise from being a photographer to become a photojournalist.
The honorable photographer is a daily worker. He does the job properly - the
car accident, the scandalous minister and football match goals. Good enough.
But a photojournalist does the entire job, a timeless story - with the camera
instead of the journalist's usual tool, the pen. There was a time, before
live TV and internet, when the photojournalist was much more glamorous than
the traditional foreign correspondent employing words and prose while plying
his art and the photojournalist told the complete story.
Lundgren is the epitome of a photojournalist.
Lundgren’s strength is his ability to perform on all fields of play: to
catch people, color, action in war and in the world of politics. He sees
what is special in the culture, fashion, religion, entertainment and
business wherever he is.
No environment is foreign to him. He is constantly awake, always keeping an
eye on the ball while creatively searching for the next shot. His
temperament swings between good mood and creative irritation as it should.
He has intellect, stamina, ingenious and discipline to deliver on a broad
range of assignments. He knows all languages and possesses an eye for his
art like an Eisenstein or a Dürer.
In addition, he has been and will be lucky.
It has been great working with him. I look forward to that opportunity
again.
Staffan Heimerson, Montauroux, France, March 2011.