Case study

Swedish Red Cross – a day at Tyrolen in Tynnered, in portraits and film

Tynnered, told by the people who live there. We photographed a day at the Tyrolen youth centre and café and made a short film about what happened behind the scenes.

A camera operator with a film camera stands among the visitors in a full café, with the sign “Tyrolens Café” on the wall.

Summary

For three years, the Swedish Red Cross (Svenska Röda Korset) ran a project in Tynnered with the meeting place Kastanjeträffen. The project ended at the turn of the year 2017/2018 and was summed up in the documentary Röster från Tynnered (Voices from Tynnered), which portrays the district through the eyes of the people who live there. We spent a day in December 2017 at Tyrolen, a youth centre (fritidsgård) and café. We photographed the people and the filming, and from the same day we made the short film Bakom kulisserna (Behind the scenes).

Tynnered, told by the people who live there

The documentary Röster från Tynnered portrays the district through the eyes of the people who live there, instead of the media's picture of crime and insecurity.

The film summed up the Swedish Red Cross's three-year project in Tynnered, with the meeting place Kastanjeträffen. According to SVT, the Red Cross, Save the Children (Rädda Barnen) and the Red Cross University College (Röda Korsets högskola) were behind the initiative. The film premiered at Frölunda Kulturhus on 5 April 2018, and both SVT and Mitt i Göteborg covered it.

The participants were found through a poster: “If you have something to say and want to make your voice heard, get in touch!” The people who took part would play themselves.

Here we show what we did on location: portraits and photos of the place from a day at the Tyrolen youth centre and café, and a short film about what happened behind the scenes.

Faces from Tyrolen

The portraits were taken in December 2017, among the visitors at the youth centre and in the café.

A man in a dark beanie and a thick scarf smiles and looks to the side.
Two young women stand close together and smile at the camera.
A woman in large glasses and an earring shaped like a peace symbol tilts her head and smiles.
A woman in a turquoise headscarf holds a coffee cup and smiles.
A man in a black beanie rests his hand on his chin and smiles.
A man in a beanie looks down, lit by green and blue light.
Visitors sit at tables in a café with blue walls, with soft drinks and pastries in front of them.

A full café

Tyrolen is a youth centre and café in Tynnered. On this day the tables were full, with visitors of all ages.

We wanted to capture the atmosphere as it was, with coffee, conversation and generations meeting.

A child and a man with a long beard sit at a café table and smile at the camera.
An adult hugs a smiling child from behind.
A framed newspaper clipping with the headline “Stäng inte vår skola” hangs on a wall next to other old clippings.
A clipping from GP, 1992, framed on the wall.

History on the wall

Framed newspaper clippings hang on the wall. One of them, from the Gothenburg daily GP in 1992, carries the headline “Stäng inte vår skola” (“Don't close our school”).

We photographed the place too, not just the people. Details like this give the photos their context.

Behind the scenes

From the same day we made a short film of just under three minutes: Bakom kulisserna (Behind the scenes). It shows the preparations, the stage, the performers, the audience, the crew at work and portraits of the people who were there.

Bakom kulisserna is a film of its own, not the documentary Röster från Tynnered.

The title “Bakom kulisserna” in white text over a blurred shot of people in a lit room.
Still from the film Bakom kulisserna.
A young woman dances by a stage with DJ decks, with a spotlight shining in the foreground.
Still from the film Bakom kulisserna.
A young man raps into a microphone in front of a graffiti wall in blue light.
Still from the film Bakom kulisserna.
An audience in blue light claps with their hands in the air.
Still from the film Bakom kulisserna.
A woman with long hair smiles broadly at the camera in warm light.
Still from the film Bakom kulisserna.

The filming

Camera, sound and filming in the middle of the room.

A camera operator and a sound technician with a boom microphone film a scene at a table with a gold-coloured cloth.
A camera operator with the camera on a support harness talks to a colleague in a corridor, with a sound technician in headphones in the foreground.

How we worked

  • People first: portraits of visitors of all ages, taken among the visitors.
  • The place and its context: the café, the tables and the clippings on the wall, so the photos show where they were taken.
  • The work behind it: cameras, sound and preparations, gathered in the short film Bakom kulisserna.

What we did

  • Portrait and location photography from a day at the Tyrolen youth centre and café, December 2017
  • Behind-the-scenes photos from the filming
  • The short film Bakom kulisserna, just under three minutes long

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