So Rikard how long have you been a photographer for now?
I was probably about 15 when I started to think of myself as a ‘photographer’. I was always intrigued by my family’s photo albums, but I only started making images when I was a teenager. My older brother was very into it when he was young and I think I stole his thunder when I grew up. The first ideas I photographed were often self-portraits and using high-contrast black and white stuff and cross-processed colour film. I did my first commissions for a youth magazine when I was 17 and that’s when I started thinking about photography as a profession.
Have you studied photography?
Like most Swedish teenagers I did a 3 year sixth-form programme at Gymnasiet, I specialised in Media and we had classes in everything from exhibition-curation to TV-production. I had an amazing time there, the lessons were very technical and collaborative. After that I moved to Gothenburg and worked in a second-hand camera shop whilst assisting a fashion/advertising photographer. By 2001 I decided that I wanted to train as a photographer and moved to Rochester because of the quality of the Photography course at KIAD. Three years later I had a fine-art based portfolio (…and brain) and I got a BA degree. Since 2008 I actually lecture on the current version of the same course.
Have you studied any other creative subjects?
Every single photographic commission or personal project I’ve ever done has required me to educate myself in a new subject. Currently I am exploring Dutch painters of the baroque, whilst reading about fashion trends.
Who is your favourite local artist and all time favourite artist?
It is hard to pick one, but when it comes to visual arts it’s Malcolm Attryde, James Hill, Nick Evans and Billy Childish and I love Wolf Howard’s poetry and Zara Carpenter’s hats.
It is even harder pick an all time favourite, but I have to say Anders Petersen for his guts. The first private view I remember going to was his 1997 retrospective at Arbetets Museum in Norrköping – he was there, talking about the way he would shoot a project and it was exactly as idiosyncratic and obsessive as I felt about my images at the time (as a pretentious 17 year old).
Who really inspires you?
Kate Bush.
Where do you like to work most?
In my head, with a camera, inside my computer.
What would you really like to learn in the future?
Whatever I need to know to make the images I want to make. And to play the drums.
Can you recommend a creative website you love?
For fashion photography I spend a lot of time on Fashionising.com which is a great resource and the GoSee.de mailing list is brilliant too. For fine art I prefer to visit galleries or look at artists monographs and I normally use Artrabbit.com to find out what shows are on.
Thank you ever so much for telling us a little more about yourself Rikard!
You can keep up to date about Rikard through his blog at http://rikardosterlund.tumblr.com/ and also at his website http://www.rikard.co.uk/
Rikard can also be found on Twitter and Facebook
Rikard Osterlund
Creatabot 
your site is excellent with all the information you provide,
thanks for your time..
great work