For a World Less Square: Rune Glifberg and His Hasselblad XPan
Words by Daryl Mersom, photos courtesy of Rune Glifberg
When analogue photos, shot on a Hasselblad XPan camera by a professional skater (who once appeared in the classic video Flip Sorry) land on your desk, a few questions come to mind.
How did one of the 16,800 XPan panorama format cameras—produced between 1998 and 2002—end up in the hands of professional skateboarder Rune Glifberg? And what is it about this format that lends itself to such interesting compositions when documenting street skateboarding?
Riding for Flip in the 00s and appearing in the first five THPS games—as well as winning 12 X Games medals—Rune has had a distinguished career in skateboarding. Now though, he’s spending more and more time on the other end of the lens, finding a way to merge his interest in skateboarding, architecture, design, and composition into one activity: analogue photography.
Originally marketed with the slogan ‘for a world less square,’ the XPan designers couldn’t have foreseen how this tagline would become incredibly appealing to skateboarders in the Instagram world of 2022. This summer, Rune documented his experiences on tour with the panorama format camera in Bristol, Warsaw and Tel Aviv. Read on for the story of how a camera once used to shoot sailing boats and fashion found its way into skate sessions shot from the hot pavements of Israel.
The Hasselblad XPan is quite a unique camera. How did you first become interested in it?
It was my friend Arto Saari who introduced me to the camera, probably about 20 years ago when he had just bought one brand new. I was intrigued by it and thought about buying one, but I wasn’t really shooting photos at the time. A Hasselblad was a big investment back then. Having said that, I just paid way more now than I would have then if I had bought it brand new at the time. So, I started shooting more analogue last year—around the time when I went to the Olympics—and I was shooting a lot of analogue stuff. Then one came up for sale right around New Years at my local camera shop. It was pristine with a low shutter count and had two lenses [there are only three lenses available for that camera]. So, I dived in and tried to figure it out.
What are the three different lenses?
The lens numbers are a bit different because of the format, but there is a 45—which is the one I shoot with primarily—a 30 which is pretty wide, and a 90. I don’t have the 30. I was out in Hawaii and Arto lent me that lens and it’s pretty crazy how wide it is; it’s almost too much. That’s the rarest of the three, so it’s mega expensive.
What are some of the challenges that are unique to the format?
It’s not the easiest format to shoot. You can make super interesting images with it, but you can also make super boring images. You can end up with a lot of dead space in your frame. It’s such a wide photo that you have to find things that you can place in the foreground to create interesting compositions. Otherwise, there is no depth and there are no layers. It’s trial and error but sometimes, you get images that really work.
Did you think earlier in your career as a professional skateboarder that you would become interested in photography?
I always thought that I had a pretty good eye for composition, but I never really thought of going into skateboard photography because there are already a lot of people doing it. I’ve looked at skateboard photography for so many years; now I appreciate photos more that aren’t obvious skate photos, where the skateboarder isn’t necessarily the primary subject. I like photos with a cool composition or where other things are happening in the frame. Something that’s a little more lifestyle or street photography-driven. If you’re shooting something in a bowl, I’d like to see a clean composition rather than a photo where you just see the trick and what’s going on with the skateboarding, because I’ve seen it so much.
How has your interest in shooting photos yourself impacted your relationship with skate photographers when you’re trying to shoot tricks in front of the camera?
When I work with photographers and I’m in front of the lens, I try to find a happy middle ground where I have a little bit of input and the photographer has their say in how the photo turns out. If there’s a certain frame that they like, I will try to think of a trick that will look good in that frame, and that works the other way around, too. Depending on who you shoot with, sometimes you don’t need to have these conversations and you just see eye to eye.
The Tel Aviv images were shot on the last stop of the Monster Energy Euro Tour. Was it good to be back touring again?
After the Covid void, it was good to be back out didn’t know much about the Warsaw scene. It was amazing to see how many people turned up and how stoked everyone was. That goes for all three locations. The energy in Tel Aviv was far beyond my expectations for the last stop of the tour.
How does architecture and design fit in with your photography?
I work with skatepark design, and I’ve always been intrigued by cool design. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a well-crafted chair or a nice wine opener, I like stuff that has high build quality. Design draws my attention, and when I go out and shoot photos, that’s the stuff I’m drawn to more. I can take a simple photo of a sky and a building and if the composition is right, I think it’s a great image. Sometimes I don’t need to have much action in the photo to make it cool for me. Simple things like good compositions elevate photos. They speak for themselves.
The image in Tel Aviv of the trick on the rail shows how much the XPan can squeeze into the frame. You get a real sense of what was happening during the session. Other photographers might have focused solely on the trick itself.
When you are shooting photos, moving around is key. I can get locked into one thing that I like too much when I’m shooting sometimes. This was a case where I was trying to find different angles that worked for what was going on. The sea is back behind where Felix is standing, so I had a lot of different angles of that trick. I have images where I’m up high and you can see the sea in the background. There’s a wide variety of angles for that one session that went down on that rail. But there was something that I liked about this image. The fact that one side is kind of dull and a little bit boring in terms of the lighting, and then when you look at the lighting of where the skating is happening, it draws your attention over. But I always find myself getting images back and thinking I could have moved a tiny bit one way or included some other stuff. That’s the beauty of shooting analogue, you’re not sure what you are shooting until a couple of weeks later. I like the feeling of getting something back and you’re not exactly sure what you have yet.
Is the developing process something you’d like to become more involved with?
It interests me and it would be nice to have enough time to do the developing myself. Some of these images are my scans, but not all of them. Printing is a little bit more interesting for me than developing. I have had a couple of sessions at a local lab with friends. But it’s hard to give it enough time and also prioritise all of the other things I have going on in my life.
See more from the 2022 Monster Children Annual by picking up a copy here.
