| art.description.project | Published: Photobooks in Sweden is part of a larger research project initiated and led by Valand Academy and Hasselblad Foundation, titled Photography in Print & Circulation (2016 –2018). The aim of the project was to investigate photography’s multiple manifestations, with an emphasis on photography and printed matter, and the many forms in which photography is distributed and disseminated. The method has been to arrange two international symposiums where we have invited researchers, curators and artists/photographers to share and discuss their practices, knowledge and reflections about printed and circulated photography. Questions that have been addressed in the symposiums are related to the ideas and ideologies behind printed and distributed photography, and the artistic and political possibilities and limitations that are connected with reproduced and multiplied photography. The first symposium had a broad perspective and covered both printed matter and internet-based platforms. It focused on how analogue and digital media facilitate different means for sharing content, and how the new technologies have influenced not at least news media in a time of political protests, activism and fake news. The second symposium was dedicated to the writing of histories of photobooks, and the curatorial and editing strategies for mediating photobooks in exhibitions and publications.
The learnings from the research symposiums were used in formulating the curatorial strategies for Published: Photobooks in Sweden, and to identify how the exhibition could contribute to the development of new ways to explore and mediate books. The most radical decision was that all the books should be immediately accessible to the visitors to touch and read, and not – which is the most common practice – presented in glass vitrines. The selection was therefore not focused on rare and valuable books, but aimed at giving a broad presentation of the photobook ecology in Sweden from 1860s until today. However, to be able to present the earliest photobooks, and some very valuable modern and contemporary books, we made a display behind glass of ca 20 titles. But for the visitor to be able to see and read even the rare books we had arranged that there was one copy of each book in the Hasselblad Foundation library, which is open to the public.
The openness that characterized the exhibition was a curatorial experiment, but in the end – as a sign of trust – only two books disappeared and they were easily replaced.
Published: Photobooks in Sweden was not chronological or monographic, and instead the books were selected and displayed in relation to three fundamental themes: Society, Self and Image. The perspective shifted the focus from the photographer as an auteur, and the book as an object, to the content of the publications. To visualize each category, and to make the exhibition space more dynamic, a selection of images from the publications were enlarged and mounted on the walls as wall papers. This was also done to emphasise the reproducibility of photography and show how a photographic image can manifest itself simultaneously in different formats and contexts.
Texts plays an important part in many photobooks and to highlight the writers’ contributions it was possible for the visitor to listen to recordings of a selection of representative texts via headphones. The weekly public program – which took place on a stage in the exhibition space – was used to widen the perspectives and addressed different aspects of the photobook, from text and image, design and collecting to questions concerning publishing and distribution. The public talks and discussions also focused on the culture and networks that are generated by the practice of publishing.
The exhibition and the public program were both presentations of the preliminary results of the research project, and used as methods for further investigation and reflection. To be able to include experiences, thoughts and ideas from the exhibition and talks a publication was released six months later. The book Published: Photobooks in Sweden is structured around the three themes used in the exhibition, but the selection of books has been developed further. It also includes an essay on the history of photobooks in Sweden with a chronological perspective as a complement to the thematical orientation. The research project unfolded the importance of networks and collaborations in the field of photobooks. The main focus in the book – and the contribution to the research – is a series of ten interviews with key people in different parts and roles in what could be described as the photobook culture. They share their skills, knowledge and qualified reflections on various aspects of the photobook as an object and an activity, a place for production and a vehicle for distribution. | sv |
