Jan Tove is a bit of an enigma in the UK; A photographer of no small talent who has inspired a great many more people than his British profile would suggest. Born in 1958 (approx 52 yrs old as of writing I believe) and now living in Hökerum, in Western Sweden, he originally trained as a portrait photographer and educated as a film photographer but ended up working as a reporter for Borås Tidning, Sweden’s main daily newspaper where he worked from the age of 28 to 34 (sort of, freelance reporting and various projects from what I can make out from various sources).

It was when he was 36 that he became a full time professional photographer, following trips with his 35mm camera to South Greenland and the Everglades in the US. The next two years of work in Finland created the main body of work for his ‘Speglingar’ book, which I think was published by his old newspaper house.

He started using a large format camera just after this and many of the pictures in his second book ‘Beyond Order’ (published in 2000 when he was 42 years old) are taken on these unwieldy, but magnificent beasts. This work includes content from many sources and as I don’t have the English copy, I can say much more about it apart from the fact it is gob-smackingly, jaw-droppingly beautiful.

Since producing Beyond Order, he has been working on a variety of projects, some landscape but a lot of which are fine art documentary where he has started to use a Phase One digital system, starting with a P25 but should now have a P65. In the meantime, here is a sample of his pictures and don’t forget you can buy his book at Beyond Words (http://www.beyondwords.co.uk/) or check out his website (http://www.jantove.com/)

p.s. Jan has called us back and is happy to take part in an interview so keep ‘em peeled