Hjalmar Rechlin is someone who I’ve personally spent many drunken nights in the company of. He’s also a filmmaker and now he’s doing photography, too. He’s the guy behind the exhibition BETA, which opens at Berns Gallery 2.35:1 in Stockholm on Saturday. Although Hjalmar describes himself as a beta male (“an unremarkable, careful man who avoids risk and confrontation”), having spent time with him on various late-night and early-morning occasions, I’d say he’s rather one of few people actually eligible to carry at least a T-shirt with “Alpha” printed all over it.
For instance, the first time I ever encountered Hjalmar, he told me that he has a hard time finding one funny story to share with people, because his “life is just this one giant funny chain of events”. Naturally, that humorous lifestyle of his happens to be the inspiration behind the photos in BETA, which are a series of nude portraits of his friends having fun in Swedish forests. I called Hjalmar in the middle of the preparations for his exhibition, and bothered him with questions that I thought could be interesting for you to read.
VICE: Hi Hjalmar. Tell me about BETA, the exhibition you’re apparently having at Berns this Saturday.
Hjalmar Rechlin: Of course! The idea comes from this friend at a party. He talked about the feeling you get from running naked outside in the grass, how nice it is to feel the grass straws against your naked bum cheeks. He explained that in a way, that’s the ultimate freedom. That led to everyone at the party getting pretty excited. So they got naked and started running butt naked in this huge field. That eventually evolved into an idea of being naked in nature in all kinds of ways. Suddenly, I was part of a bonanza where I happened to take some photos.
What kind of ways were people being naked?
Well, for example, my friends and I found these small 80s-styled skies – which are banned nowadays because people break their legs [laughs].
Anyways, we got the brilliant idea to try the skies in the forest. Obviously in the summer, moss is an excellent substitute for snow. We built these fucked up elaborate slopes out of moss and dirt with crazy jumps and stuff. Shit. Thinking about all that now, I think it’s a good thing we were drunk, because then you have a better chance of not breaking your bones, which we didn’t do – amazingly.
LOL. So why is the exhibition called BETA?
You know how we Scandinavians are like cows [beta means to graze in Swedish] – we spend plenty of time every year indoors – so when summer arrives, we go crazy. When we hang outside, naked in the fields, it’s almost as if we’re like grazing cows. Being one with nature.
So what’s the process like when you make this kind of work?
It’s about getting to the place within yourself where you are totally free and have no boundaries. For me, partying is one way to achieve that, and that’s when magic ultimately happens. That doesn’t mean that I need to drink to get naked and do stupid stuff though.
Hjalmar’s exhibition BETA opens on Saturday, September 6, at Berns Gallery 2.35:1 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Videos by VICE
More photography on VICE:
Early Photos of Punk Rock After Dark
Walter Pearce Went to Paris Fashion Week and Did Not Take Pictures of Fashion
Photographs From a Corrupt Nepalese Orphanage
