Young Hearts: Getaskogen

Young Hearts: Getaskogen is a body of work of young girl’s dreams and the life and passion for racing. Layered with questions about history, gender and existential related questions. A story about being a female, in todays racing industry.

The Photography project Getaskogen shot 2021-2024 is named after a racing track for carting outside Stockholm. In the fall 2021 I started to shoot the 12-year-old female driver Milla Sjökvist, that I got contact with through internet after researching about female motorsport. My interest in racing reminded me of my own competing in slalom as a child, with its liberty in racing with speed.

For the following years Getaskogen developed into shooting 3 girls Milla, Minna and Alexia, that all compete in the first state of car racing, carting, and second state, Aquilla Formula 1000. I have been shooting most of the images at the carting racetrack Getaskogen outside Södertälje, but also includes images from Falkenberg’s racetrack, in south of Sweden, a racetrack where you can race with real cars as ex Aquilla Formula 1000 cars3.

Minna, Milla and Alexia are all dreaming of becoming the first female Formula One driver to win, a dream that many women before them dreamt about without succeeding. The girls are dedicated, practicing several days of the week and competing many of the weekends. Accept racing the girls are learning how using technologies and data analysis, such as eye tracking and attention computing, in the training to develop the performance, helping them achieve their dreams of racing.

Getaskogen is a body of work of young girl’s dreams and the life and passion for racing. Layered with questions about history, gender and existential related questions. A story about being a female, in todays racing industry. Today only 1.5 % of the licenses is by women in the hole world. The motorsport has a gender disparity, when women are not acquired economic support to succeed in their career.

In 2023 no women are racing in Formula One. The last woman to compete was Lella Lombardi in 1976, that is 47 years ago a woman started a race in the most technologically advanced sport in the world – Formula One.

The project including besides still photography, video, sounds, documents, text, interviews and a ready-made sculpture from a car crash from one of the races I shoot. Many of the photographs are shot with filter on the lens. With a feeling of that life flies by, watching it from a car.