Welcome to my world of photography!
This page opens the door to four unique categories, each telling its own story.
Who is Staffan Ehde?
You might be wondering who is behind the pictures?
I am a photographer, storyteller and visual nerd – with a long and tortuous relationship with the still image. It started as a 12-year-old in the darkroom. A few years later it was coming to an end, when teenage hormones and girlfriends competed with photography. But then something unexpected happened.
While walking with the camera over our shoulder (mostly as an excuse), an apartment in front of us suddenly exploded. Instinctively, I picked up the camera. The next day, my photos covered a spread in Göteborgs-Posten – with my name on it. I was stuck again.
At the age of 15, I photographed for the Folkteatern, projected images behind "Alice in Wonderland" and experimented with movement together with the dancer Claude Marchant. However, it was not until Brooks Institute in California (where I took a Bachelor of Arts 1979–1984) that I seriously moved – from still images to moving film. There I became a news cameraman for NBC. Back home, I started at SVT, but soon I started my own.
The VHS era exploded, SVT's monopoly broke, and with it my company Metafor Media grew. We produced corporate films, events and interactive productions – sometimes with 25 employees. It kept going until the world stopped in the fall of 2001. After crises and market changes, I chose to leave that world and start over on new ground. (That story can be found a www.ehde.se.)
In 2009, I ran an innovation company with colleagues. But my wife Ellinor – a researcher, artist and wise fellow traveler – questioned the squirrel wheel. The result? We set off and sailed around the world with our children. Three years of travel, three years of life. During the sailing, I decided: I’m not going to film. I’m going to photograph.
The still image was back
When we returned home in 2015, we started working again – at a slower pace. Ellinor exhibited her abstract paintings (www.ristoff.se), and one day in 2019, a vacancy arose in a group exhibition. She suggested I step in. I showed portraits from the Pacific Islands – and the response was surprisingly positive.
But it was a new feeling: giving myself a mission. Could I do it?
It was the beginning of a track about memes and replicators – inspired by Richard Dawkins. But that track was interrupted by yet another replicator: Covid. Pause again.
And during the break I found light. I was deeply inspired by Harold Ross and his technique of "sculpting with light". I got in touch, took an apprenticeship – and started creating again.
That's what you see here.
I don't take pictures. I make them.