Experiment: Åke E:son Lindman
Summary
The exhibition shows experimental works by the photographer Åke E:son Lidman from 1980s to the present. He has experimented with camera less photography, different chemical processes and photographic papers to create images that challenge established notions of photography, and the boarder between figurative representation and abstraction.
Supported by
The exhibition was financed by Zornmuseet, and the publication was supported financially by Längmanska kulturfonden.
Description of project
Åke E:son Lindman is a internationally acclaimed and active architecture photographer. His images are presented regularly in magazines, journals and books about individual architects, architectural firms and monographs about buildings and/or styles of architecture. Since the early 1980s Lindman has also worked with projects where he is experimenting with the boundaries of the photographic medium. He is exploring the limitations and possibilities of the light sensitive papers, chemicals and dark room techniques. An important part of the method is to deliberately obstruct the processes and embrace and develop the element of chance.
Lindman has produced a large body of experimental works over the years, and from a curatorial perspective the selection and combination of the images was crucial. In the discussion with Lindman I convinced him to not include his iconic images, which often are reproduced and strongly associated with his oeuvre. The risk was that should take attention from the other images and the overarching aspect of experimentation. It was also important to create an associative “narrative” with the works by mixing the three different series. Otherwise the exhibition would have become too predictable and static. The combination of the images and they were presented created a web of visual references and rhymes, as well as contrasts and gaps. The three different series are portrays of plants and close ups of nature; images of architecture and buildings; and finally camera less images. They are produced by using photographic papers, developer and fix, and called “chemigrams”. Even though they are non-representative and abstract they look like depictions of landscapes made by ink. By the combination of the series a theme revolving around the relation between nature and culture is highlighted. The imaginary landscapes, created by the chemigrams, evoke both a time before man and the conditions on earth after a devastating apocalypse.
An important aspect of the exhibition is the context. It is shown at Zornmuseet in Mora. Anders Zorn was a painter active between 1880s and 1920s. He is one of the most internationally known Swedish artists ever, famous for his nudes, portraits and pictures of rural life in Dalarna. It was rather recently that the museum acknowledged that Zorn experimented with photography, both as sketches for his painting and etchings, but also with an obvious interest in the medium of photography itself. The context of Anders Zorn, and his use of photography, emphasis the painterly qualities of Lindmans work, and the historical and strong relation between painting and photography.
Type of work
Curated exhibition
Published in
2 September 2017–14 January 2018
Zornmuseet, Mora
Information in Swedish and English
Link to web site
http://www.zorn.se/en/
Date
2017-09-02Creator
Östlind, Niclas
Keywords
Photographic experiments
Materiality
History of Photography
Architecture Photography
Nature Photography
Publication type
artistic work