Dirt: Tell us a bit about your background, how did you get into action sport photography in the first place?
Mattias: I started out my career as a journalist, worked my way up from the sports pages at the local daily paper in my hometown of Växjö in southern Sweden to an editor at a mountain bike magazine in Stockholm. This eventually led to a position as editor and photo editor at Sweden’s leading ski magazine Åka Skidor. I worked there for three years until 2000, since then I have been freelancing.
I had already started to shoot photos 
during my years as an editor at these magazines, since a big part of my job was to be a photo editor. So it was a natural transition to become photographer. A lot happened in the freeride community
during my time at Åka Skidor as I was asked to deliver photos to the skiers sponsors. I felt it was about time to give it a shot and see where the photography industry might lead me.
Would you consider yourself a ski photographer that shoots mountainbiking, or a mountainbike photographer that shoots skiing?
I don’t see myself stereotyped as an action sports photographer, as I challenge my self to shoot all mediums and lots of other stuff rather than just action sports. I do assignments outside of the ski and bike industry, which allows me to develop my skills as a photographer.
As far as time devoted to ski and mountainbike photography, I spend more time shooting in the snow than in the dirt, as I find myself leaving
the camera behind much more in the summer. Over the last couple of years I have devoted more and more time towards mountain biking though. I really enjoy the mix of skiing and mountain biking, it’s a great balance.
Snow and dirt are two elements that vary greatly, one is bright and white and the other’s darker with green and brown thrown into
the mix. Mattias manages to shoot both at the highest level without being limited by any of them, but instead letting elements from both his passions flow into the other.
What are the differences between shooting skiing and mountain biking?
The main difference is that in biking you don’t have to worry about getting ‘first tracks’, when we shoot skiing we usually want untracked powder snow, which is hard to find in ski resorts these days. With that said, we need to work harder in the winter time and it’s more hassle to get to the locations, and the weather is also a bigger issue.
Since lots of the best mountain biking is to be found in forests, it’s not as dependent on good weather. Also biking is better if someone has ridden the trail as many times as possible, so it’s the opposite to skiing as far are that goes. A bonus about shooting mountain biking is that I don’t have to worry about getting cold hands or the risk of avalanches!
On the other hand, what are the similarities? Sure there must be quite a few.
The attitude in both sports are very similar. I want to show movement, gravity and flow, also how the trail or the line goes through the environment. In both skiing and mountain biking I work with what the environment provides me to make an epic shot, whether that be shooting a line or trail through beautiful looking trees, an interesting feature, the magnitude of the surroundings or stunning light.
I would say shooting both skiing and 126 mountain biking helps me stay creative and find new ideas that I can try in both fields. Mountain biking often takes place in the trees and doing the stereotypic shot is pretty boring so I often see myself climbing trees, crawling around behind bushes, trees and flowers to find creative, different angles. I think my shots benefit from this search for unique angles, which also makes my ski photography more interesting in the end.
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