The Swedish West Coast

Childhood Memories Coming Back

My heart beats faster every time I return to the Swedish West Coast. The skerries, polished by the inland ice during thousands of year at our last Ice Age, the seas pounding on the rocks or lying like a mirror a glorious morning, the sailing boats spreading their wings towards the sky, the narrow alleyways between wooden houses. This is were I grew up and will always return to. I loved to jump across the rocks and play in the water pools as a young kid and I can saw my first children enjoying it 30 years ago and now I can see it repeated in Eric and Mikee.

My childhood summers were to a large extent spent on the Swedish West Coast. We rented accommodation from the local fishermen for a few weeks every summer. My father fished and we accompanied the locals going out fishing and sailing. Together with my first wife and our four children we had a house at Gullholmen, a small island north of Gothenburg, and later in life Jennifer and I got married outside Gothenburg and christened our yacht Adèle at Marstrand. Both Gullholmen and Marstrand are small places on islands without any cars. But whereas Gullholmen has preserved its character as a fishing village, Marstrand is a summer paradise for lots of people from both Stockholm and Gothenburg with many restaurants and an active social scene.

The granite skerries that constitute the islands on the west coast are very barren. Most of the few trees that once were growing there have been cut down and used for shipbuilding, boats and houses. It is a tough climate in winter, but in summer the landscape smiles at you. Photographically it is very appealing with lots of small islands, sailing yachts, attractive villages protected by the rocks in the background and a fast changing weather creating drama. My images are from most years between 2005 until now, and I expect I will add a few new ones every year!


3 thoughts on “The Swedish West Coast

  1. “Den allra vackraste lilla ungmön som nå’nsin funnits på Kärringön,
    Ja hon blev min hon, å’ hon var blåögd,
    å’ hon var fager, ja nästan skön.” (Harry Brandelius)

    Nice Kaerringoy in Sweden, but you have been at the butiful Kaerringoy in Norway as well. Just north of Bodo. Guess you went there with Adele.

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