published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE Autumn 2009 Issue, Volume #10
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Interview with Jeppe Wikström
by Anette Sallmander
photos by Jeppe Wikström

We meet at Skeppsholmen, a little island in the centre of Stockholm, where Jeppe Wikström runs the Max Ström publishing house together with Marika Stolpe. The island is full of culture, with Sweden’s museum of
modern art, Moderna Museet, as well as the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities and the Royal University College of Fine Arts.

Anette Sallmander (AS): Are images a universal language?
Jeppe Wikström (JW): I see a photograph as a part of a wordless world that can be accessed without any particular language. Having said that, there can be cultural differences. I once gave one of my Stockholm books to a man in China, who got upset and said, “It’s terrible that you have so much pollution in Stockholm.” He’d never been in cold weather, and he thought that the fog in the air was dirt. Images have the great advantage of being relatively independent of nationality, gender and context.

AS: How did you start your career as a photographer?
JW: When I was 14, I applied to write articles as an apprentice at Sweden’s largest daily paper, Expressen. My application was misinterpreted and when I arrived they handed me a camera. I just had to learn on the job. But it was fantastic. I was working with the best press photographers in the country and got to learn by doing. To develop as a photographer you need to take pictures, over and over and over again. It’s like learning how to play a musical instrument. If you want to master the saxophone, you start by learning to play the notes, where to put your fingers and how to get the right sound. Then suddenly you start improvising and jamming and the music just comes from within. That’s sort of what happened to me – after 10 years and perhaps half a million pictures, my camera became an extension of myself. Photography became instinct more than technology, and I could be much more emotional. For me, equipment and film is not the main issue – presence is. The weather shifts and the light changes. Being there is essential.

AS: How passionate! You work both as photographer and publisher, for what does your heart beat faster?
JW: I really don’t see much difference between working with my own images as a photographer or with other photographers’ work as a publisher. It’s all about the images. But you could say that I work as a publisher but am a photographer. Being a photographer is like being a doctor or a musician. It’s a vocation.

AS: Yes, but the difference is that, unlike other photographers and artists, you are able to sell your own images. Most of the musicians, photographers and other kind of artists are awfully bad at selling themselves.
JW: I always look for the whole context and I’m pretty good at it. Reaching out and selling is all about communication. Artists and photographers who lack self-esteem will have a hard time selling themselves.

AS: So how did you manage to sell yourself?
JW: I know what I want and I communicate that. I’ve had some great offers and I could have led larger companies, but that’s not what I’m interested in. I see my leadership style more akin to that of a project leader. Max Ström has created some of the major photographic projects in Swedish history and we have done this with prominent business partners. For example, A Day in the Life of Sweden was a project where we had 3,000 photographers making photos all over the country on the same day. The photographs became a book and an exhibition at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. The book has sold more than 100,000 copies in just a few years. There you have to look at the whole picture; it’s not important whether it’s my own image or someone else’s. You have to take care of design, text, printing, image quality. You have to understand the whole chain.

AS: You present with equal pride other artists as well yourself. From the prestigious August prize-winning book The Ingmar Bergman Archive to Sweden from Above, Harmony of the Stockholm Skerries and 100 Ways to Save the World.
JW: It’s usually less important who gets the credit, as long as the book
comes out right.

AS: I see you as a documentary photographer with still photos.
JW: That’s pretty accurate. If I were to work with film it would probably be documentaries.

AS: What is the life theme in your work? What is your story that you are trying to depict?
JW: I’m not the kind of artist who processes the past. I’m working in the here and now. My aim is to depict reality and the present, and I don’t need to work outside Sweden, although I sometimes do. I’d call myself a local storyteller. I enjoy landscapes, but it doesn’t really matter whether they are urban or rural.
 

AS: So how do you catch the present and the reality?
JW: It doesn’t require special equipment, but there’s a duty to be present both mentally and physically. I’m interested in the contemporary, but I sometimes use history to make the ‘modern’ more comprehensible. Comparison helps with understanding.

AS: Looking at your Document of Stockholm, there are a lot of pictures taken from roofs and high places, it seems risky.
JW: Not with the right preparation. In the beginning of that project I met two roofers taking a break from working on the cupola of a church. They were 100 metres up, just sitting there swinging their legs. I said, “You look like you’re just hanging out on a park bench.” Their reply was immediate: “Yes, but we don’t fall off park benches either!” It’s all in your mind, fear, guts or whatever. My biggest advantage is to be curious and fearless.

AS: I am curious about the book 100 Ways to Save the World. Can you tell me about the idea behind it?
JW: The topic certainly isn’t unique – there are any number of books on environmental issues. What is unique is that we provide concrete ways for you and me as individuals to create a more sustainable future. It is not a book that tells you how to invent alternative energy sources or close coal power stations tomorrow. We start with Tip 1, ‘Call a politician’ and end with Tip 100, ‘Call a politician – again’. In between, there’s clear practical advice on reducing negative impacts in our day-to-day lives. Almost everything we do is driven by ideas. This book is sponsored by three of Sweden’s largest companies, and that helps us offer the book at a very reasonable price. We’ve sold 125,000 copies in Sweden alone, and it’s also been published in Denmark, Norway,Finland, England, Germany, France and the US.
 

AS: What drives you?
JW: The will to tell a story. And to tell it with quality. That urge can sometimes be a very harsh critic – “that’s not good enough, you can do better.” Some of our printers probably think we’re difficult.
 

AS: Who is your inspiration?
JW: Great photographers like Sune Jonsson, Pål Nils Nilsson and Lennart Nilsson. I also get a lot of inspiration from our incomparable graphic designer, Patrik Leo. The greatest inspiration of my life is Marika Stolpe. Not only because she’s my wife, but also because she is a great working partner as the managing director of Max Ström. What we have, we really created together.

This article was published in LOFT The Nordic BOOKAZINE Autumn Issue 2009 Volume #10.