Since they met when they were children and used to go to kindergarten together, Oscar Lund-Hansen and Fredrik Hvass have built a relationship that combines the personal and the professional dimension in what they call “a family business.” This duo of photographers based in Stockholm decided to condense their creative vision and their way of working into one project, Swim Club IMG. This combination of photographers collaborating under one name, specialised in creating concepts and unique worlds around the images, has already signed relevant works for international magazines and brands. The last one is an editorial shoot with SOCKSSS—you can see the photos below—a brand that we spoke with in mid-2022 at METAL. You can read the interview here.
“We’re a group of five, and everything we create is released under the name Swim Club. It’s an unconventional way of working, but we’re so closely connected that we’ve essentially merged into one,” says Fredrik, one of the leaders of this platform built on concepts such as collaboration and creative alliances, when we ask him about the agents that take part in this project. This initiative is a part of Swim Club, which presents itself as “a group of directors and photographers with a unique set of skills unified by a mutual drive to create.” “Swim Club is the mothership, and IMG is focusing more on stills,” adds Hvass.
Although IMG’s category within this broader platform is fairly new, Oscar tells us that they have already had the opportunity to collaborate with brands they admire. “We’re also gearing up to expand production in 2025.” One of those labels is SOCKSSS, a brand that emerged to make these garments something valuable after realising the lack of attention they received, which is directly related to their photography project. “It's a creation that's born from Swim Club as a way of taking things into our own hands and creating a product that we can express ourselves freely. Basically, we just do things exactly the way we want to. “This shoot is a perfect example.”
We asked Oscar and Fredrik about the shooting they did for the brand, an experience that ended up becoming a huge challenge that they will never forget. “It was a wild ride. Everything seemed set—location permits, weather, models. But as the shoot day approached, the weather took a turn, and a storm from the North Sea rolled in, bringing wind gusts of up to twenty-five meters per second,” Hvass tells us, before sharing what his biggest concern was. “We were especially concerned about how the gators would handle it. Despite the chaos, we pushed through, and everyone—both in front of and behind the camera—delivered brilliantly."
Having produced editorials and covers for Grau Magazin and campaigns for Bleue Burnha, among other projects, Swim Club IMG has clear objectives: to make fun stuff with interesting brands and people. “I guess it differs a lot depending on what we want to achieve, but it all stems from our collected bag of inspiration, and from there the concepts can be born in a million different ways,” they respond when we ask them about the creative process and development of proposals within this project, as well as the similarities and differences between the different editorials and campaigns they shoot. When we ask them where they would like to be in five years, they quickly answer without hesitation, “On the cover of Vogue.”
