(I uploaded some of these earlier but made a new project now that it is more or less finished as a project. I might continue if the inspiration comes back, and in that case you will probably see it first on my instagram: @samuelpfoto)

So, around this time of year, last year, I got divorced. My life changed quite drastically in a very short period of time. 

After a couple of months I finally found something for my own. A nice old apartment. As soon as I walked in I liked one of the walls in the living room. I just liked the tone of it and started to think I wanted to photograph people against that wall. I felt inspired, so I brought home some gear from the studio, just to have it always around at home. My first vision of the project was that I would just photograph every single person who visited me. I guess I also felt kind of lonely.

 It has since then evolved. It's all about randomness. Some of these are old friends, some of these are strangers I asked to shoot, and some are strangers who have come to me and asked for a portrait. Randomness. But the same wall. My living room wall.

My friend Janita. She recently moved back to my hometown after a long period of traveling and studying. She also just got a job that matches her skills and what she's studied. So that's good, and it's good to have her back. This was taken the first time she came by to visit and have look at my new apartment

This is Alexandra. A really cool person, and photographer. She shares office with Elin (photo of her down below). They came together for their portrait session, and we had a lot of fun. They even had different outfits, and we used cats alot as props (as you do). I loved this outfit though, and I love this photo. Nothing is "right" with this one. It's a weird angle, and "too" wide angle, and her pose is weird. Everything is weird with this one - yet it's one of my absolute favorites from this project.

This is a long time friend, and also a photographer. Anneli. We went to the same high school actually. She was more of a punk rocker back then. She had a mohawk, leather jacket, anarchy-related t-shirts and everything. Now she's into fitness and works out a lot. She's a good friend, and I actually lived at her place for a couple of months when I was trying to find an apartment.

This is my new neighbour, Dagny. The building has four apartments and she lives in the one next to me. She's 91 years old and here she is with her cat Isa. I saw Isa in the window one day so I knew she had a cat. Since my divoce I miss my two cats a lot. They will be living with my ex, and I'm ok with that I just really miss them. So, I wanted to take a portrait of her and the cat. I meet her outside the buliding one day and mentioned it. She seemed up for it. So for the next week I rang her door bell almost every day, but she would never come to the door. I could hear her TV and knew she could not hear well. One day the volume on the TV was a bit weaker and she answered the door. We had a quick photo session, but the cat wasn't that excited about it.  A week later I came by with prints of two photos. This one, and another one with just her. She seemed very happy about them and said she would frame them.

This is and old class mate and friend of mine. Efraim. He's an awesome musician and plays in numerous bands. He's mostly a drummer, but can play pretty much every instruments (well, at least guitars and bass, and synths). This is also one of his cats, that I took care of for a short period while it was impossible for them to keep them at their place due to renovation).

This is Elin, a really talented documentary photographer. She's made books, and has had a lot of exhibitions. A few years ago, me and my ex-wife were in a project of hers, and since then I've tried to find the time and opportuniy to take her portrait. This year, we made it happen and it was a really long and fun session. At the time I had cats living with me, and there is no better prop than a cat.

This is Emil. He's a really talented bartender. He was making a book about drinks, and some of the photos were taken in my home, by another photographer friend of mine. Of course I wanted to take some portraits of him. I took some photos of him holding bottles of booze aswell, but this one became my favorite.

This is me. For some reason my apartment became some kind of a cat shelter. As you can see - a lot of cats in these photos. People know I like cat's and have been asking me to take care of cats a lot this year. So I took this "family portrait".

I was visiting an exhibition for a local documentary photographer - namely Elin, who's also featured on one of the portraits here. Gabriella recognized me from Instagram and came up to me. She said she wanted to have a photo taken by me. But also said she did not like to be photographed. We agreed to do it that same day, so she walked home with me, drank some coffe, talked about life. And took photos.

This is Jana. She's a film maker, and a friend of Mysans (more on her further down). We had a party outside this summer in a nearby park (kind of). We ate pizza at a place clouse to my apartment, so I asked if some of the people wanted to come by for portraits. I like this shot because of the hand in front of the face. It's kind of "off", but in a way that I like.

This is Janne. One of the worlds most positive people. He smiles, and laughs a lot. He works as a janitor for a big company that owns a lot of apartment buildings in the town I live. He's also the father of one of my best friends, Sara. Sara is the one who lived in my apartment before me. So Janne came by to pick up some things for her and I saw my chance to take a portrait of him.

This is Joakim. I've known him for a couple of years. Me, my ex and his girlfriend at the time used to hang out. Then they moved to Stockholm, and later broke up. Now we live in the same town again, and he lives close by. He came by for coffe one evening and we chatted about life. Just before he left I asked to take some photos of him.

This is Magdalena. She was a total stranger and answered me on an instagram post where I just asked if someone wanted to come by for a portrait.

She was a really cool person, and we actually became good friends after this session. We drank coffe and chatted about life, and had a lot of common interests, so, we still keep in touch and hang out from time to time.

This is Mysan. 

She wrote me on Facebook and wanted to collaborate on an art project, so she came by to discuss this. This also started a friendship, and, now almost half a year later: we are a couple.

She's just an amazing person. Funny, talented, interesting. One day I will photograph her again against the wall. She was constantly laughing and smiling on every photo I took during this session.

This is Petra. She is almost a neighbour. She follows me on Instagram, and one we realized that her cat often strolls around my house. It's an orange lovely cat named Kaviar that I sometimes see from my balcony. We got to talking about this, and one thing led to another, and she came by for coffe, or as we say in Sweden, "Fika" (basically just hanging out, with coffe, and maybe some cookies or something). Since this, we see each other from time to time, and one time I took care of her cat and gave him food when she was away for a weekend.

This is Sara. We used to work together a couple of year's ago. I actually worked at a company, shooting lots of people in a concept called "model for a day". Customers got their make up done på Make up Artists, and we took photos and sold the photos. I guess it's a common concept in some countries. Anyway, me and Sara worked together for a couple of years and we just decided to catch up on things one day.

This is Selma. She's a friend of a friend. I first met her just before christmas on a night out. We hung out with our mutual friend that evening and we later became friends on Facebook. One day I simply asked her if she wanted to come by, have some coffe and a portrait. At this point I was getting interested in using props from the apartment. It started out with just the wall. But I've started to let more things come into the frame. Lately I tend to shoot wider and have the floor in the frame aswell.

This is Mattias. He's also a photographer, and he used to work as an intern at my Studio. Not for me, but for another photographer who I share the studio with. We got along well, and share some interest - mostly metal music and Ice Hockey.

And this is Therese. We knew each other way back, maybe 15 years ago. She used to live very close to me, and we used to go to the same bars, clubs, and pubs back in the day. We got chatting about life one evening on Facebook and decided to grab some coffe together. 

That's the last one. For now. It's been a while since I took another portrait in this series. I

might continue, but I feel that it's done for the time being. 

You could always follow me on Instagram if you're interested in this project, since that's where I have been sharing it mostly: @samuelpfoto

(my account is entirey in swedish and contains regular personal iphone-snaps aswell)