Loewe featuring Joakim Möller's Vision of Urban Life
The Poetry of the Street: Joakim Möller's Vision of Urban Life
At just 25 years old, Stockholm-based photographer Joakim Möller has carved out a distinctive space in contemporary street photography. Working exclusively in black and white, he transforms the mundane rhythms of city life into something closer to visual poetry.
He has now collaborated with Loewe for their homeward fragrance range.
Born in 1999, Möller picked up a camera in 2017 and hasn't looked back. What started as spontaneous documentation has evolved into a highly experimental approach that blurs the boundaries between street photography and fine art. His Instagram following of nearly 300,000 speaks to the universal appeal of his moody, contemplative images.
The Visual Diary
Möller describes his practice simply: photography is a visual diary. He shoots daily, driven by impulse rather than premeditation. "I have slowly started to accept that my eyes always will be on the hunt for the mystery that is hidden among the mundane things I encounter," he explains in his recent publication with Setanta Books.
This instinctive approach yields images that are minimalistic, mysterious, and often disorienting in the best way. Birds mid-flight, blurred pedestrians, fragments of architecture—Möller captures fleeting moments with precise composition, creating images that feel both immediate and timeless.
Where Nature Meets Humanity
What sets Möller apart is his photomontage work. These aren't digital manipulations but carefully composed arrangements of cropped photographs placed side by side. In one piece, a person's fingers seamlessly become tree branches. In another, power lines transform into flowers, while neck movements echo a bird's gesture.
These juxtapositions carry a quiet message about humanity's relationship with nature. Created from his daily walks through Stockholm—a city where lakes, parks, and green corridors weave through urban life—the montages suggest we're not separate from the natural world but intrinsically part of it.
The technique recalls the experimental spirit of early 20th-century photomontage, yet Möller's work feels thoroughly contemporary. He crafts these compositions without digital editing, relying instead on framing, cropping, and arrangement to create visual poetry from multiple images.
Breaking the Rules
Möller's philosophy challenges conventional street photography wisdom. He shoots close, follows subjects for blocks, and deliberately avoids the rigid rules many photographers swear by. "Use your eye as a continuation of the camera," he tells workshop participants. "There are no artefacts, no thinking. Stop thinking and look."
It's an approach grounded in instinct and immediacy. His favorite quote, from photographer Ernst Haas, captures this: "There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are."
Recognition and Influence
The photography world has taken notice. Möller won the Italian Street Photo Festival in 2020 for best mobile photo and was a finalist in the Street Photography International Awards the same year. His work has been featured in exhibitions and photography publications globally, and he now leads workshops sharing his unconventional methods.
Influenced by Richard Koci Hernandez—whose work first opened Möller's eyes to street photography's possibilities—he now serves as inspiration for a new generation of photographers. His images circulate widely on TikTok and Instagram, where viewers marvel at his ability to create seamless collages without Photoshop.
The Compulsion to See
For Möller, photography isn't a choice anymore—it's a compulsion. He's tried leaving his camera at home, only to find his phone full of images. He's tried leaving his phone too, but then walks around mentally cataloging scenes. "It has become an annoying habit I can't kick," he admits with characteristic honesty.
This relentless observation yields work that operates on multiple levels. Individual images function as precise street photography documents. But his montages open up interpretive space, creating visual metaphors that speak to our relationship with urban environments and the natural world we often overlook.
The resulting body of work is soothing yet thought-provoking, nostalgic yet forward-looking. In Möller's hands, Stockholm's streets become a stage where humanity and nature perform an ongoing dance—one he captures with the instincts of a street photographer and the sensibility of a fine artist.
At an age when many photographers are still finding their voice, Möller has developed a mature, distinctive practice. His visual diary continues to grow, one daily walk at a time, documenting not just what he sees but how he feels. And in that simple act lies the poetry that makes his work resonate far beyond the streets of Stockholm.
Joakim Möller's work can be found on Instagram @moller_joakim and through Setanta Books' Bi-Monthly Zine series.
