Biography
Johan Bävman (b. 1982) is a freelance photojournalist based in Malmö, Sweden. He combines his own long-term projects with freelance assignments from different clients worldwide. Between 2008 and 2011, Johan Bävman worked as a staff photographer at Sydsvenskan, one of the largest newspapers in Sweden. He graduated from Nordens Fotoskola, Stockholm 2007. He was previously a member of Moment Agency (2007–2015). Johan Bävman has won several awards, including the World Press Photo, POY, Sony Award, NPPA, UNICEF Photo Award, TT Photography Award and Picture of The Year (Sweden).
Portfolio
Swedish Dads
Swedish Dads is a series of portraits of fathers who belong to that small percentage of working men who choose to stay at home with their children for six months or longer. With this project, Bävman wanted to find out what made these fathers stay at home much longer than most of their peers. Sweden has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the world. Despite this generous allowance, only a fraction of Sweden’s dads use all of their allocated parental leave, and only fourteen per cent of parents split it evenly.
Bävman has two aims for this photo project. Firstly, he wants to illustrate Sweden’s unique parental policy. Secondly, he wants to inspire other fathers – both in Sweden and further afield – to see positive benefits of taking a more active role in their young children’s lives. He does not want to glorify the fathers in this series. Instead, he seeks to engage in a debate about why these dads are considered special.
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