Johnny Haglund

Johnny Haglund was 14 when he fell in love with photography. He spent a lot of time in the woods and wanted to capture with images what he saw in nature. The mentality of a documentary photographer was present from the beginning.Thinking it wasn’t possible to make a living as a photographer, Johnny became an engineer. An engineer, who kept taking photos. Only when his images started winning prizes did he realize that perhaps it could also be a profession.He knew it would require a lot of hard work to become a professional photographer, but realising a dream was worth the effort. He started looking up places, people and adventures that other photographers might found too difficult, too uncomfortable or just too time-consuming to reach.

Returning from a 42-day trek in the jungles of Papua, Indonesia, in 1994, he finally managed to sell his first story. He says it still took him years to learn to take good photos. He wasn’t a natural with the camera, but he has always been good with people. It is easy for him to get his subjects to trust him and feel comfortable in front of his camera. Perhaps because he has a genuine interest in people.Johnny loves diving into different, unknown and from his point of view – strange environments to document daily life, work and religious practices. He also loves climbing, trekking, diving, and especially speleology. “Finding an unknown cave, or an old WWII bunker, and entering this dark world with my camera… Then coming out with images that describe what I’ve experienced. It is more than a job to me,” Johnny explains.