Stockholm Fotomarathon 2026
Emil Gyllenberg joins me today. He is the chief organiser of the Stockholm FotoMaraton, a 24 hour event taking place in August. I had never heard of such a thing, people running around making pictures for 24 hours and then entering to have theirs selected as the best in various categories, so I contacted them and Emil agreed to come on to talk about it.
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Episode Transcript
Iain:
Hey everyone, a mid-week episode this week. Today I'm speaking to Emil Gilenberg of the Stockholm Photo Marathon. Now, this is a competition that I had never heard of before, but it takes place every year in Stockholm, and over a 24-hour period photographers gather to take photos and submit 24 images at the end and have them judged to be the best in various categories. It sounds like beautiful madness, and I had to know more, so I contacted them and Emil very graciously agreed to come on the show, tell me about it and talk about how you, if you're listening, can take part. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Emil. Look who it is. It's Emil. Yes. How are you, sir?
Emil:
Good, thanks.
Iain:
Is it hot with you at the moment?
Emil:
No, not in Sweden. It's been a warmer day today, but this last week we've had quite cold weather. it haven't barely made it up to 20 oh wow okay that is cold yeah we've had it very hot we've
Iain:
had fires um just near us big not as big as last year thankfully but still um an area that was about six kilometers of forest uh it's still kind of smoldering but they've got it under control so now we just we just have to hope that it kind of stays under control and you know and we get But do you still have it? Do you still have it warm? It was about 2022 today.
Emil:
So same.
Iain:
It's lovely to see you. And I'm very interested in the preamble there. We were briefly touching on as is impossible to avoid touching on AI a little bit. It's nice to talk to someone who I think is organizing something as part of a team organizing something that is the antithesis of that. That is getting people together. And on the day that we're recording, I am two days into a week of virtual photo walks that I'm organizing with listeners. And we're doing a thing. So I can't get on a plane and turn up at someone's house for a coffee every week. But what I can do is send them a podcast to poke them every morning to remind them to pick up a camera and go out. So that's one of the reasons I'm so interested in the Photo Marathon. So for someone who doesn't know who's listening, can you tell us about the event and where the idea came from?
Emil:
So the idea and the concept of a Photo Marathon is like to do your research or do when I've done my research, it dates back to 1986, I think. And in Barcelona, that's where my research says the first one was. I know there are some people speaking about it being in somewhere in the US as well, but I haven't found any evidence of that. So Barcelona, 1986, I think the first Photo Marathon was. And then we had the first one in Stockholm, 87. I wasn't born then, so I wasn't organized back then. But it's almost easier to tell somebody how it works by talking about the analog time. Because back then, you got a 24 roll of film. So you have 24 exposures on that. and you had to take 24 pictures within 24 hours. And during these hours, you are gonna pass by different checkpoints. So you're passing by a checkpoint every fourth hour where you will get your next four topics. So that's the basic concept of a Photo Marathon. So back then you had one exposure per topic and you didn't have to take one picture per hour, but in the long run, like, even it out, it's one picture per hour, basically. and then just go out, be creative. Everybody are in the same place. You need to be at these checkpoints every fourth hour. So you can go wherever you want as long as you make it to your checkpoints. So that's the full thing of it. And everybody has number plates, so you will see them around town and speak to people. And so it's a whole big thing, just creative mess, I would say.
Iain:
It's amazing. what a wonderful idea I've done photo scavenger hunts and things like that in the past around flicker used to be good at organizing those in London and places like that but this is just such a different take so are people staying awake through the night and just the whole thing yeah
Emil:
definitely so as looking at it and we are in Stockholm when I revived it I revived it 2014 and back into the digital era we had it in Stockholm from 87 up until somewhere 99 98 99 and then the digital cameras came and nobody could take it forward from there. So I revived it in a digital sense 2014. So nowadays you can take as many pictures as you want, but when you reach goal, you need to have just 24 pictures on your SD card or on your memory card, and they need to be taken in the correct order. So topic one needs to be taken before topic two. Some people think this is harder because now you are never finished. Back then, you had your exposure when that exposure was done. Then you can move over to the next topic. Now you're like, yeah, but there might come something better. So that's, you can say. But basically, we have, so the checkpoints are open for two hours. So we start at noon, so 12 o'clock in the morning. and then we have the first checkpoint is open from 3 to 5. Next checkpoint is open from 9 to 11. No, 7 to 9, sorry. And then midnight, so 11 to 1. And then 3 to 5. And then in the morning, 7 to 9. And then you reach the finish line by 12 the next day. And people, so you can go home and sleep a little bit, but you will only have at max 6 hours if you come 11 in the evening and then come five and then you have at max six hours to get somewhere sleep and then but then you will lose time taking photos as well so people don't sleep much
Iain:
no oh that sounds so cool what and neither do us well of course yes as an organizer what made you bring it back how did you I mean you weren't born when it started and when it was originally going So how did you discover this?
Emil:
Well, I worked at a production site with a guy producing documentaries. And his first documentary was Stockholm Photo Marathon, when it celebrated five years. So I worked with him on a film, and we were starting to get finished with that film. And we started talking and got into photo. and I'm like, oh, this is a good idea. So I got him to contact the main person because he was like the right hand to the person organizing this back then. So I got him to get in touch with Tobe who had founded it in Stockholm earlier. And they hadn't talked in like 10 years or so. So we took a coffee and she told me all about it, gave me the intro. And then I asked her if I could bring it back to life. And she's like, yeah, if you think it's possible, go ahead. Yeah, that was 2014. Now we're like 14 years later. I was young and stupid. That's why I did it.
Iain:
Yes. Do you know there's a saying I often reference on the show, which is an engineer's proverb, that we didn't do this because it was easy. We did this because we thought it would be easy. Exactly.
Emil:
I definitely like that. Because back in the old days, they had like 11 to 1,300 people participating every year. And so it was quite big. And I figured like now there's Facebook. I can reach everybody. It will be so easy to get the same amount of people and get this up and going and up and running big. The thing I didn't think about is like back then there was more or less one event happening every weekend. Now there's thousands of events every weekend. So I had some more to compete. So I think the first year I had 300 people starting. Nowadays, we're up over 1,000 people starting again, but it took 10 years to get there.
Iain:
Yeah. Hey, 300 is not bad. That's a room full of people. Yeah.
Emil:
Yeah, definitely. I remember I was 19 when I started this, and I remember talking to my dad. I'm like, yeah, you will reach a point. Now this was because we always run it in August, mid-August. and like when we were getting into June he like yeah you will reach a point now where you need to take a decision go or no go like if you move forward now you need to do it no matter how many people there will be like yeah we're gonna do it and we made it so I love it now that you're doing
Iain:
it do you have like people who turn up every time if you had people who've been to all of those
Emil:
yes I do and I have people that were to all of them back in the old days as well so I have people who have participated in like 30 photo marathons uh it is I think a Photo Marathon is one of those events that have like you have so many recurring people because it's such a weird and fun event and if you meet another photo marathoner that have participated in a Photo Marathon you can sit and talk for hours there are so many stories out there people like meeting people have like weird things going on because you're out for such a long time meeting so many people getting tired walking for like miles and miles again and it's it's crazy but it's also crazy fun uh I have a good friend that says it's really type two fun. It's fun afterwards. During the time, it's not as fun.
Iain:
I've talked about the podcast being a 20-year project and having people involved and coming and going definitely helps. How long do you think you've got in you for this? Is this kind of a lifetime project now?
Emil:
Well, I said I was going to do it for 10 years. Now we're up to, I think this is year 13 or something. So I don't know, to be honest. I think I will make it to 20. But we'll see. I don't want it to die. So it depends on, I assume I will just be in it. And then I might be a little bit less in it, but still in it. And then a little bit more in it sometimes. It goes up and down. I've definitely been on my way out sometimes and then gotten back again. so we'll see right now we are a quite good crew it works well when we work and it doesn't take too much of my time it's like this is not my main none of us working with this it's not our main gig and right now I just got my second kid I'm in Pixies I run kayak rentals I work with outdoor and with kayaking is my main job so to say right now I'm a bit tired due to that kids, small kids and also main season but yeah I think I will at least keep on until year 15 but probably longer than that probably 20 at least. Yeah, that's good. My lifetime thing. What a great thing though it's a wonderful thing to
Iain:
make something because I imagine hearing from people afterwards
Emil:
enduring is kind of like the fuel that keeps you when you're all tired like the dopamine I remember like the first my first five seven eight years like sitting at the finish line after the 24 hour finish line and signing uh these diplomas and like shaking everybody's hand and like saying good job the dopamine from that is like you can live on that for for months uh yeah you shouldn't you shouldn't talk to me afterwards I'm so cocky and like so much self-esteem uh like pulling this off
Iain:
it's worth it yeah for anyone listening who wants to take part have we missed the cutoff do we have
Emil:
to wait for next year or can people still sign up no no there there still is a few tickets left they are running away fast now I think we're probably we have we're selling 1200 tickets now this year and we're up to I think we have 200 tickets left but they are moving quite fast now so if you want to join and go in and pick your ticket as soon as possible yes fantastic and for
Iain:
anyone listening is it digital only now or can you can you take part with like if you were mad enough to do instant film or something like that could you do that no it's it's only digital now
Emil:
We had film. You could participate with film back a few years ago. But we only had like 12 or at max 20 people participating. And the time frame gets pushed back so much for development and stuff, for the jury work and all of that. So we cut it off. So now you can participate with whatever camera you want that is digital. So your phone or whatever digital camera you find. and there you can find there are many obscure different digital cameras as well if you want to
Iain:
go obscure don't don't you worry yes now I hear from the digicam crew all the time it's baffling to me it's not my it's not my jam at all but yeah people love themselves an old digital camera that's
Emil:
for sure yeah feel like the phones are next yeah yeah uh right now we have I would say we have quite many phone participants as well uh which is fun we started allowing phones a few years ago uh what we found out so nowadays you can participate either do an eight hour or a 24 hour so basically you can you can choose to reach the finish line after eight hours or you can continue so it's the same ticket but you can choose to finish after eight hours and that what we've seen from that is that we get so much so much more kids and families which is also fun uh then people come and full families some with their phones and with their big camera gears and everybody has everybody's in it to win it and everybody has a chance which is also quite cool oh that's brilliant
Iain:
yeah I like the idea of tailoring it as well to open it up to a wider audience of people and then if you're hardcore you can do the real thing and still take part if you're in a family or whatever and that means people I guess can come and go and then hopefully their generations of people will
Emil:
come through the door as well yeah there are that's the most like that's one of the most like fun or great things about the Photo Marathon is that we have I think the first year my and this was then we only did 24 hours the youngest person participating was nine and the oldest was 87 so that's like it's for everyone and that's that's the coolest part of it and everybody competes at the same at the same level as well we had the nine-year-old he won a topic
Iain:
so that's crazy yeah yeah so oh fantastic well I'm distraught that I can't take part but I would like to try and put my name down not this year but for next year yeah next year because I need to come to need to come back to Stockholm and and do some stuff with the photo museum and find an excuse to be in that fantastic city you should yeah brilliant well for people listening who want to find out more I mean where can they find out more about the event on Stockholm
Emil:
photomarathon.se or on photomarathonsaroundtheworld.com you can find out your closest for photomarathon as well I think it's actually the domain is just photomarathon.com to be honest probably you can put a link somewhere on your podcast
Iain:
there'll be a link in the show notes
Iain:
yeah said like a true podcast host, brilliant, well thank you mate thank you so much and good luck for August I hope it goes really really well
Emil:
well thank you very much thanks for having us here