Which was your favorite Brilliant Minds shoot?
What did you think of Brilliant Minds?
“Icona Pop. We know each other well and have talked about doing a shoot for a long time. They’ve got great energy. I really love the portraits I took of Antonia Ax:son Johnson, there was a lovely connection, it ended up great. Daniel Ek told me that he doesn’t like to have his picture taken so when he said he likes the photos I took of him, it made me very happy. And it was of course an honor to photograph Quincy Jones.”
“I unfortunately didn’t have time to listen to most of the speeches. But the artist JR and I are good friends, and his art installation Women Are Heroes carries the same message as my photography project Women With Integrity. He’s a kindred spirit with similar ideas and work methods. Brilliant Minds is a great initiative.”
You’ve been an entrepreneur for decades and now you’re a photographer. Would you call yourself a creative pioneer? “Well, I guess you could call me a renaissance man since I do a multitude of work – design, photography, film scripts… And if I look back at my career, I was part of making Diesel what it is. J.Lindeberg was basically a startup; I worked with it from idea and vision to a full-established brand. I’ve worked with Justin Timberlake and Jay Z who just like Daniel Ek and Ash Pournouri, are at the forefront of music and technology. I’ve learned a lot from them.”
Why do you think Sweden has bred so many successful entrepreneurs? “Back in my Diesel days, in 1993, I told tabloid Aftonbladet that Stockholm is the most modern city in the world. The same is true today. Swedes are well educated, speak good English and are very innovative. We’re good at spotting international trends and recreating them. And of course, our society rests on democratic values of equality with flat organizations. Swedes have understood the value of creativity and how much confidence it can generate.”