Le Jean (The Denim)

“2007 was the beginning, I was in the darkroom developing film and I saw my first photograph coming to life. Before that, I was painting for around three years. As I was extremely bullied in school and didn’t have any friends, the painting was my meditation and escape from reality. Meantime struggling with my sexual identity.

After graduating from ICP in New York, Kulturama in Stockholm, and the School of Photography in Stockholm. I started working as a photographer and trying to find my artistic identity in the competitive market. I tried art directing and producing but I knew that Photography was my calling.

With a passionate interest in art and photography, I’m constantly hunting for new artwork and sometimes go overboard, for example, in 2019 I visited a theatre performance group called Signa in Åhus mental hospital in Denmark. Voluntarily being a mentor to an extremely mentally disturbed patient. The whole experiment was to get in touch with your compassionate side.

Now my artistic identity is about the person I’m photographing and seeing that real person through the lens and not portraying them as something else. Before photographing someone I spend time with models and getting to know them better to understand who they really are.

Inspired by Rineke Dijkstra and Eiki Mori for their beautiful portraits and capturing a feeling and state of mind. Being gay in a male-dominated heterosexual industry has not been easy and still is not easy, you always have to adapt and be on the edge and hold back.

Despite many setbacks in life, I will continue to photograph for the rest of my life.” *Magnus Swärd