About Sven

El Gitano Marquesas

Sven’s family home anchored in the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific.

About Me

I spent the first 18 years of my life sailing around the world on a small boat built by my dad, with my parents and three siblings. Inspired by my constantly changing environment, my first photos came from a cheap point and shoot film camera, which saw enough of the world to become battered and worn. After countless rolls of 35mm my grandfather took pity and gave me his old Pentax SLR. The way those prints came out – the colours, the depth, and the grain – still inform my style today. 

The desire to capture moments reminds me to go out into the wild and find them, which has led to adventures I would not have had, people I would not have met, and a career I could not have dreamt.

Working with London publishing companies and agencies has allowed me to create a portfolio of work with known brands such as Rolls Royce, the Hilton Group and Sunseeker Yachts. Whether it’s fashion or luxury, portraiture or lifestyle, cars, yachts, architecture or food, I enjoy working with my clients to create powerful and immersive visuals, which tell stories that help them to engage and connect with their customers and wider audiences.

If you have a project or brief you’d like to discuss, I would love to hear from you. I’m based in Manchester UK, and am available for commissions internationally. I have a team of skilled professionals that I work with in order to provide clients with a full suite of production services, should they be required. I can provide studio space, as well as stylists, hair stylists, MUAs and videography. Give me a call or drop me an email about your project and we can get the ball rolling. 

Adventure:

Vietnam

The Vietnam trip took me through the interior of Vietnam, from Hanoi to Saigon, to create a haunting memoir of the Ho Chi Minh trail – a thousand kilometres of roads, dirt trails and rivers, used by Vietnam’s most celebrated, revolutionary leader to win the Vietnam war. The trip was completed on a very temperamental motorbike nicknamed Huskey. I’ve found travelling by motorbike allows me to experience a place’s people and landscapes in a more intimate way, and makes it easy to stop frequently whenever something catches my eye. Watch the short video I made of this trip here.

Scandinavia

The Scandinavia project was a four month, five thousand mile, round trip, this time on a (slightly) more reliable Harley Davidson. The project was conceived as an opportunity to meet with some of Scandinavia’s most exciting fashion labels, interview the lead designers, document their places of work and shoot their latest collections, on Scandinavian models in beautiful nearby locations. I collaborated with brands including Our Legacy and Norse Projects, and visited locations ranging from the bohemian township of Christainia in Copenhagen to the windswept islands of the Gothenburg Archipelago.

 A body of photographic work was created, including in depth interviews with the designers about their approach to creativity and business. Regular updates were shared with British and international fashion press during the trip. This resulted in a series of designer-in-focus features being published by the contemporary style platform Hypebeast, a trend report on Copenhagen Fashion Week published by SHOP magazine and an editorial commission to photograph some of the lead designers and engineers at the renowned Danish audio engineering company Bang & Olufsen.

Filming on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Vietnam