Mid Sweden University

The images are violent. In the photographs, the natural flow of the Ljusnan river is replaced by some three million logs harvested from forests upstream. This was the 24th of May, 1917 when the “Storbröten” log jam was formed. It was one of the world’s largest log jams consisting of 787,500 cubic meters of logs, spanning 1245 meters long and ca 28 meters deep. The images of Storbröten show overt violence, but a more subtle use of photography in the exploitation of the Ljusnan river is also present in the archives. 

The industrial exploitation of Sweden’s waterways as timber-floating routes and for hydroelectrical development, helped Sweden make its debut as an industrialized and modernized nation. This resulted however in catastrophic consequences for the fluvial ecosystems and biodiversity affected. Remnants of the industrial image complex of log driving and dam-building in Sweden can be found in the form of photographic documents at local and national archives. One collection is the Ljusnan Flottningsföreningsarkiv, translated; Log Driving Association archive at the Swedish National Archive in Härnösand, Sweden. While images from these and other archives depicting industrial violence against waterways are often used as illustration for historical accounts, there is a lack of analysis from visual and ecological perspectives. 

This work explores how photography was used as a way of both participating in - and documenting both the overt and more subtle industrial violence against waterways in Northern Sweden. Through study of a handful of photographs from the Ljusnan watershed, patterns of (repeat or) rephotographic practices are evident, offering an opportunity to discuss how rephotography has been used both to colonize nature, as well as how photographic methods and techniques may be used in its decolonization. This presentation will reflect upon these images as well as related experiments from my artistic practice.