Återvändarna / The Returners is a photobook based on a 2019 series of anthotypeprints made by experimental photographer Linda Maria Thompson reflecting onthe transient nature of the migrant experience.
Extract:
“… the images are brought back to the land from which their subjects once left.Here, images from the archive are combined with plant-based emulsion andsunlight to create the anthotype, a plant-based photographic process invented in theearly 1840s. Until recently, anthotypes have been largely ignored for their inherentimpermanence; the inability to remain fixed. This trait, once seen as a drawback, isre-envisioned in Återvändarna / The Returners . The archival images are digitallycaptured and reworked before being exposed on hand-dyed paper for 2-6 weeks inthe brief, but intense, summer sunlight of Northern Sweden. The emulsion itself ismade from plants found nearby my home including wild blueberries (oftendescribed as a native plant tied to the Swedish self-image) and lupine flowers (oftendescribed as an “invasive species” brought to Sweden from North America circa1870). The act of harvesting the plants offers space for contemplation and theprocessing of the emulsion is just that – a processing. Traces of plant materialcreate images and associations of their own, leaving behind the mark of thelandscape in the emulsion. The resulting anthotypes are an integration of time andplace. The process returns the archival image to a state of transition whilesimultaneously connecting the work with the land and its history. The works returnmigrants to their transient fates while inviting us to contemplate the impermanentnature of the human condition…”