The Ski Journal • Volume 16, Issue 1 • ALRIC LJUNGHAGER: Puts it All Together

Roll call for the whole 1000 Skis crew in Engelberg, Switzerland, with Lucas Stål Madison, Magnus Granér, Anni Kärävä, Theo Thorén, Alex Hackel and Pär Hägglund.

Alric Ljunghager is tucking fast toward the big jump at Kimbosessions in Kläppen, Sweden. Too fast. Without fear or a second thought, the lanky Swede hits the lip with his faithful Canon 6D camera in hand. Seconds later, he’s rolling down the landing, bits of lens and camera body scattering in all directions as he tumbles. Instead of panicking about his gear, he laughs, picking up the pieces. He works quickly, deftly reassembling his camera before skating away. The whole scene looks a chaotic near-disaster, but for Ljunghager there’s a creative pursuit in the madness, a path worth every fall it takes to get there.

Over the last decade, the 34-year-old has been quietly redefining the genre of ski photography. His composition-heavy eye has landed standout cover shots and photo-of-the-year awards across the ski world. Today, his quest to capture the sport in a different light than the standard powder slash has challenged the landscape of ski photography, his work helping skiers like Pär Hägglund, Magnus Granér, Alex Hackel, and Lucas Stal Madison reach a growing worldwide audience.

It wasn’t long ago that Ljunghager was a budding professional freeskier himself, with aspirations toward a competitive career. A tragic accident during trampoline training in 2014 left him with a broken neck, the scar tracing his spine serving as a constant reminder of what could have been. During his rehabilitation, he bought himself a camera, and while the injury itself had no long-term impact on his health, it ignited his ceaseless search for adventure, his natural inquisitiveness, and his willingness to chase unique imagery. That pursuit of the perfect photograph has taken him from abandoned factories in Russia, to teahouses in India and deep powder in Japan. It has seen him hiding under piles of his friends’ luggage during the 20-hour journey from Stockholm to Riksgränsen, Sweden, when he couldn’t afford a train ticket, and crashing on floors in British Columbia.

But some of his most iconic images have come from locations many would consider mundane. He shoots on groomers and in terrain parks. It’s his imaginative composition that makes his photos instantly recognizable, standing out in the crowded world of ski media. He shoots from unexpected angles, tilting the lens, shooting while moving and using slow shutter speeds. Sometimes he frames images close to dissociate the skier from the scene. Other times he embeds the skier in an unfamiliar environment, perfectly capturing the out-there thinking of his subjects.

“[Alric’s vision] comes from having such a different perspective on the world and him embracing that, saying yes to it,” Hackel says. “I think the goal of photography is to be able to tell a story through your eyes and to give others a snapshot of your perspective. Alric totally succeeds in capturing his experience and transporting the viewer into his world.”

That world is one he shares with his favorite creatives and misfits. The Bunch has spent the past decade making a name for themselves as leaders of a resurgent anti-establishment movement of skiers, those looking for curves rather than straight lines. They’ve created a freestyle niche beyond bigger jumps and bigger spins. Luckily, Ljunghager’s photographic process mirrors the crew’s style in front of the lens, placing less emphasis on what is epic and a greater focus on the character and the moment. His style is free-flowing and, in part, a product of circumstance. The skiers don’t plan their tricks or lines, so Ljunghager is left with an incredibly short window in which to compose and execute the shot. “It’s not always easy and a lot gets missed,” he explains. “But it’s also a freedom most photographers don’t have. I always try to bring some character to the photos, to show the face and the skier’s individuality.”

Ljunghager has been part of the crew since he was invited to join a sail-to-ski trip to Sunnmørsalpane, Norway, by founding member Stal Madison. “The Bunch never had a photographer until Alric came along,” Stal-Madison said in a 2019 interview. “He was the missing piece of our puzzle.”

For Ljunghager and The Bunch, it has always been a symbiotic relationship. The skiers provide Ljunghager with a unique brand of skiing that offers him a perfect muse for his offbeat photo projects. Meanwhile, those photographs have translated to global success alongside The Bunch’s award-winning movies and the crew’s rapid ascent in the ski world.

But their influence has extended beyond the hill as well. Turning their collective mind to addressing skiing’s glaring sustainability problems, Ljunghager and crew recently founded 1000 Skis, a brand dedicated to reducing climate impact. Though most of the decision-making is done through brainstorming sessions at their office, Ljunghager is loosely considered the team’s creative director. Along with the rest of the company’s founders, he’s passionate about sustainability in an industry that has historically come up short in that area. “The goal is to provoke change,” he says. “Skiers are a mostly wealthy, mostly educated consumer group who are most likely to accept the sacrifices that a more sustainable product requires. We think skiing should lead other industries forward.”

The all-red skis are evergreen, aiming to break the urge to upgrade product graphics every year, and the factory where the skis are manufactured in Åre, Sweden, uses all renewable energy. They are bringing a ski-repair kit to market to help increase the life of the skis rather than promote consumerism, and the brand has partnered with RISE, a government-run institute aiming to promote sustainable growth in Sweden. Ljunghager knows they are onto something, and explains that 1000 is working on both bio-resins for the skis and heat-resistant edges to prevent edge cracks and further prolong the life of their product.

After years spent traveling around the world, most of The Bunch have now converged on Stockholm, where they have an office and organize their various business ventures. Along with Hägglund and longtime video guru Gustav Cavallin, Ljunghager is part of The Bunch Studio, producing high-end photo and video content. What started as a simple collective invoicing system, has grown into a full photo and video agency taking on commercial projects with major brands such as Baileys, Captain Morgan and Uniqlo. For a mind like Ljunghager’s, commercial work always seems a bit constrained, but he loves the challenge of getting the perfect shot to fit a brief, a welcome respite from the creative chaos he lives every other day.

Ljunghager has taken nicely to the latest transition. “We barely need to talk when shooting,” Hägglund says, “I can even tell by his body position what focal length he is using, so I know how close I can get without being in the shot while shooting video simultaneously.”

The crew still find plenty of time to shoot skiing too and thanks to lessons learned from his commercial projects, Ljunghager now sees himself as a more efficient photographer on the hill. “Instead of shooting for a month, searching for the perfect photos, I come with a stronger vision and can get the same amount of work done in a week,” he says.

From producing high-end liquor campaigns in city centers to holing up in a massive army surplus tent above the Arctic Circle for weeks on end, Alric Ljunghager has diversified his photographic pursuits. Yet his legacy truly lies in how he fuses those many facets together into a life’s work that at once challenges the brain and captivates the eye. Beauty, thanks to its beholder.

The Ski Journal - Volume 16, Issue 1

ALRIC LJUNGHAGER: Puts it All Together

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