With my camera
Älvsborgsbron is all around me in front. I look up toward the sweeping steel span of Älvsborgsbron. The late afternoon light casts shadow across the water, and the underside of the bridge reveals a geometry that most passersby never truly notice. From this vantage point, I’m photographing not just a landmark but a piece of engineering poetry — the ribbed steel beams stretching toward Hisingen like a metallic ribcage arching over the Göta älv.
Built between 1963 and 1966, Älvsborgsbron connects the mainland with Hisingen, one of Sweden’s largest islands. It’s an indispensable artery for the city’s traffic. But here, standing beneath it, the focus shifts away from cars and buses to the monumental stillness of its structure. Its green-painted steel has weathered decades of wind, rain, and salt air, yet it retains a quiet dignity. The sunlight filters through gaps between beams, creating alternating stripes of light and shadow that ripple across the underside.
From my spot,
Älvsborgsbron and its massive concrete pylons rise from both side’s of the water with a kind of unshakable confidence. I frame them carefully in my viewfinder, trying to capture both the scale and the grace of their form. The bridge deck above is far from silent — muffled traffic hums overhead — yet here at the water’s edge, that noise becomes a background rhythm to the lapping of the river against the quay.
The view toward Hisingen is framed perfectly by the converging lines of the bridge. The far shore is bathed in a softer light, with cranes, oil silos, and the occasional ship hinting at Gothenburg’s industrial heart. In my photograph, I want to juxtapose that urban grit with the almost sculptural elegance of the bridge’s underbelly.
Photographing Älvsborgsbron
from this side means embracing its dual identity — functional infrastructure and aesthetic statement. It is both a connector and a presence in its own right. Through my lens, I hope to preserve the way the structure seems to float and anchor at the same time, stretching across the river like a promise between two shores. This shot will be more than an image of a bridge; it will be a portrait of Gothenburg’s resilience and grace in steel and concrete.