Contrasts. I live for them. Thought about contrasts during this morning’s super-early, jet lag induced jog around Malmö, Just a few days ago, I was running between the piers. The morning’s weather was spectacular with a temperature not too different from what I had been getting used to in Venice Beach. I didn’t see a single homeless person this morning, though. Then again it was early.

I tried hard to eat well while in California. It certainly ain’t easy. There’s just so much good tasting food to be enjoyed everywhere. On two occasions, I had one of these bagel platters they serve at Cow’s End. A breakfast with that kind of massive calorie intake meant I could skip lunch without feeling any loss of energy. Have yet to find a place that makes bagels in Sweden.

From this morning’s ballerina themed shoot in Venice Canals and Venice Beach. Great working with a professional model like Tiffany Crystal. So little direction needed. And she was extremely confident and agile in her poses – in no small way thanks to 13 years of ballet experience.

Almost a week of my visit has passed and I’m still a little jet-lagged. Wake up at 04:30 a.m. and work a little before stretching and pulling my body into the wet suit, quietly taking my board down the apartment building’s stairs, onto the beach and into the waves. This morning was spectacular and the first day so far that provided some sunshine.

Had a great meal yesterday evening. It’s hard to find really good Mexican-inspired food in Sweden. Malmö has a few places that offer a few decent dishes, but it’s mostly standard recipe stuff with none of that home made cooking vibe that you can expect at almost every food truck in L.A. As far as I know, the level of splendor and amazing variety available here is unsurpassed. Outside of Mexico, of course. Last night, I had what was arguably one of the top ten meals in this category at a unassuming poco bodega a few blocks inland in Manhattan Beach aptly called, Sion’s Mexican Restaurant. The Ahi-Ahi tuna tacos, shrimp tacos, guacamole, refried beans – all of it was just superb and made a big dent in my belly – and was the perfect fix for my week-long craving.

After an unusually long gestation period, I can finally unveil what is arguably the most inspiring project I have ever worked on thus far: a new, 240 page coffee table book called, We are Malmö Opera. I’ve designed a site for the book as well with a slew of additional images (outtakes) and a condensed version of how the project began, a brief description of my workflow and a link to where you can order your copy/copies of the new book.

Shot this a few years ago somewhere over the Öresund strait – a part of southern Scandinavia where the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea converge between Denmark and Sweden. It’s one those images I can’t honestly remember taking. Which isn’t that surprising, really, But I’m still going to keep it. It represents one of those moments in my life where I left my comfort zone (and the comfort of the Earth’s gravity) for new perspectives.

For whatever reason, I keep waking up ridiculously early. I don’t have an abundance of things going on, so it isn’t stress or anything negative. It’s probably a combo of age and season.

Skånes rapsfält. Hur vackra är dom inte så här års? Och doften, sen då? Ljuvlig. Jag har verkligen tagit fasta på det där man säger lite flyhänt att man skall stanna upp lite och lukta på blommorna. Känns sunt och livsbejakande. Är verkligen less på inomhustillvaron och all evinnerlig, oåterkallelig tid jag lägger framför skärmen.

Tonight Charlotte and I enjoyed something new at Hai – one Malmö’s two good Japanese restaurants. We ate a tasty Hawaiian dish called “Poke” /poʊˈkeɪ/ which according to Wikipedia is Hawaiian for “to section” or “to slice or cut”. Poke is a raw fish salad served as an appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine, and sometimes as an entree. Traditional forms are aku (an oily tuna) and he’e (octopus). We had the not-so-oily tuna which was basically cut into sashimi slices and placed together with other goodies on a bed of sushi rice. It’s a hyped dish here in Malmö but simple enough to make at home.

Snart är galleriet tömd. Bara några få möbler och min arbetsstation är kvar. I studion är i stort sett allt sålt. Känns oerhört befriande. “Sista svepningen har inga fickor” som gamla grannen i Göteborg, Siw Swahnberg, brukade påminna mig om gång efter annan med tillägget, “Samla på minnen, inte prylar, Joakim”.