Mid Sweden University

Detta kapitel visar hur svensk film bidragit till produktionen av samerna som svenskarnas primitiva ”andre”. Med hjälp av postkoloniala och genusvetenskapliga redskap undersöker kapitlet hur svensk film visualiserat, och samtidigt rasifierat, samer dels genom att använda det specifika bildspråk som Tobing Rony benämner ”ethnographic spectacle”, och dels genom en svensk version av det som kallats ”blackface cinema”, där samiska rollfigurer med agens företrädesvis spelas av svenska skådespelare. Den tidiga svenska filmen om Sápmi diskuteras också i förhållande till den raskartläggning som Herman Lundborg bedrev i Sverige och i Sápmi vid denna tidpunkt. Kapitlet avslutas med en studie av hur Amanda Kernell’s film Sameblod (2016) bryter mot denna tradition genom att rollbesätta på nya sätt, genom att konsekvent bryta med tidigare berättar-, bild- och scenografikonventioner, och genom belysa den rasbiologiska kartläggningen av samerna. I denna analys använder sig kapitlet av dekolonial teori för att visa hur Sameblod aktivt nedmoterar de rasiska strukturer och det latenta våld som gav riktning till tidigare film om samer.

_{This paper addresses the intersection of European photography and European identity through a discussion of Safe European; a photographic project on identity and youth unemployment by Swedish photographer Pelle Kronestedt. In an analy¬sis informed by semiotics and work on the political rhetoric of photography; the author argues that; through display in an unusual exhibition locale and an unexpected focus for a documentary photographic project on such a subject; Safe European subverts expectations and raises questions about photographic repre¬sentation and cultural attitude}

Networking North/Decolonizing Future is the final event in Bildmuseet’s project NetworkingNorth. The seminar is organized in collaboration with CuratorLab at Konstfack.

Networking North promotes networks and professional collaboration between international curators and artists living and working in northern Sweden. The project comprises portfolio viewings, lectures, workshops, and studio visits, with the aim tosupport and strengthen the internationalization of the visual arts scene in the north. This three-year project (2020-2023) was initiated by Bildmuseet in collaboration with the Regional Visual Arts Coordinators in the northern region, with the supportfrom Region Västerbotten (The Regional County Council of Västerbotten).

This artistic research reflection explores Sweden’s legally-mandated ‘tourist-release’ at the Ångermanälven River’s storied site of Nämforsen. Against World Wars and calls for energy independence of the mid 1940s, the iconic Ångermanälven River was industrialised from a free-flowing salmon river to eventually a series of 44 dams and hydropower plants. Later, a unique environmental court legal judgement resulted in ‘tourist-water’ at Nämforsen that gives the illusion of a free-flowing river during summer months. Existing for solely aesthetic purposes, tourist-water is an unexplored example of the (in)visible powers perpetuating myths associated with hydropower and place in Sweden. Through text and images, this piece reflects on witnessing this tourist-water phenomena through place-based documentary arts practice. The fieldwork is part of a doctoral project in artistic practice focusing on how photography can mediate complex issues in places of environmental change through the case of Nämforsen. Strategies such as framing, time-scaling and montage have emerged from this practice at the same time as ethical concerns related to representation are raised. This case is especially pertinent as hydropower in Sweden comes under increased scrutiny, simultaneously as it is marketed as a sustainable energy solution. The piece furthermore highlights the lasting implications of conservation efforts centred historically on aesthetic rather than ecologic values.

Part of an ongoing artistic practice dedicated to raising questions about transience and impermanence, this research explores the effects of materiality on the photographic process and experience. 

This research asks: How do antique/analog techniques and materials applied during the photographic process affect the perception of the ‘moment’, both in the photographer’s experience of the process, and the resulting image?

In her State of the Internet report from 2014, analyst Mary Meeker reported that 1.8 billion photographs are uploaded to the Internet each day. [1] The time-consuming practice of analog photography in any format cannot compete with that speed and ease of delivery, and yet analog photography is experiencing a revival[2]. Why?

 William Mitchell asserts, “The difference (between analog and digital photography) is grounded in fundamental physical characteristics that have logical and cultural consequences.” Having started my own practice in the darkroom, worked digitally for years, to now working on an analog series, I am interested in finding out what those ‘consequences’ are and how they relate to the experience of the perception of presence (the moment) and thus memory.

This paper reflects on the experiences of the photographer (myself) and the resulting images of a photographic series work-in-progress with the working title “Contact”[3]. Each exposure is a meditation on the themes of transience and impermanence and strives to create a dialog around the idea of “being present” – advice often repeated in this busy, distracted digital age. While it is possible to explore time passage using both digital and analog techniques, by limiting the process to an antique analog 18x24 view camera, and by using paper negatives with a low ISO, the process is continually forced into a long exposure (several minutes long) where the ideas of ”being present” are not only the work’s inspirational starting point- but also a necessity for creating images.

Additionally this research explores what is meant by “the present” and how is it manifested in analog materials? Psychologist E.R. Clay asserts ‘We are constantly aware of a certain duration—the specious present—varying from a few seconds to probably not more than a minute, and this duration (with its content perceived as having one part earlier and another part later) is the original intuition of time.’[4] If the present is a moving target – lasting only a few seconds, what happens when the photographic process is extended from a fraction of a second, to spread across several moments – thus making a visual document of the past and present – in a single image?

[1] Meeker, Mary http://qz.com/214307/mary-meeker-2014-internet-trends-report-all-the-slides/

[2]BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32337778

[3] Thompson, Linda Maria. Contact: a work in progress 2015. http://www.lindamthompson.com/uncategorized/work-in-progress/

[4] Le Poidevin, Robin, "The Experience and Perception of Time", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2015/entries/time-experience/>.

This paper examines how Swedish Americans used photography and the backdrop of the West to construct their own sense of identity, empower themselves as colonialists, as well as the significance of the photographic image in their transition from Swede to American.

Nordiska Museum’s collection “Amerikaminnen foto A-L and M-Ö” offers a record of photographs sent along with letters from Swedish-American immigrants to their friends and families back home in Sweden. The Amerikaminnen (translated: Mementos of America) collection, housed in at the museum archives in Stockholm, provides us with more than simple records of people and places. A closer look at the photographs originating specifically in the American West offers an opportunity to discuss themes of place and identity.

While many of the images sent home to Sweden from North America in the 19th century could be simply categorized as professional studio portraits, we also see a significant proportion of environmental portraits and landscapes. This paper looks specifically at these environmental portraits and photographs taken outside of the formal photographic studio as they offer expanded opportunities for analysis of other identifying factors, such as location, background, composition and symbolism. While the collection includes images from across North America, this paper concentrates on images originating from the western Midwest and American West in the 19th and very early 20th centuries. By focusing on the frontier experience, this paper addresses the Swedish immigrant’s relationship to the land and how it shaped their identity as well as how the land was shaped by its new inhabitants.

In an early form of social media (letter writing/correspondence) Swedish Americans used photographs to construct their identities as adventurers, conquerors and inhabitants of the American West. The visual language used by Swedish-Americans is not unlike contemporary forms of identity-building present in social media forms such as Facebook and Instagram. The relationship between personal identity and place that are pervasive in the Amerikaminnen images are also present in both contemporary discussions surrounding immigration and environmental ethics.

Specifically of interest in this context are the questions: What can we learn from the way in which early Swedish-American settlers pictured themselves in the West? What does it say about them as transitioning immigrants? What attitudes are reflected towards the land itself? How did they empower themselves as colonialists through the use of photography.

By using photography to help form their perceptions of themselves the settlers also influenced how they, as individuals, would be perceived by friends and relatives back home, which perpetuated the myth of The Wild West, helped romanticize the American Frontier and further empowered new Americans as actors of Manifest Destiny.

This article focuses on the ways in which the environment is pictured in an industrial archive in Sweden, and how the use of photography is implicated in the industrialization of rivers. The fluid nature of landscapes, the role of landscape and colonialism connected to photography in Sweden is considered through a selection of archival photographs from log driving industry. The article centers around the case example of photographs from the Ljusnan log-driving archive. Rephotographic tendencies surface, and this article argues that repeat photography is used in the documentation of and redesign of the landscape. The terms repeat photography and rephotography are discussed and clarified. This research acknowledges rephotography for industrial purposes in contrast to environmental goals, suggesting that industrial photographic archives can provide a starting point for new narratives of places of environmental change and extractive industry.

The following visual essay stems from ongoing artistic research into fluid landscapes and documentary photographic practice at a site of energy extraction. In Northern Sweden lies Nämforsen, a waterfall-turned-hydropower plant that embodies the difficulties of visualizing ecological issues. The historical site has been represented over long periods of time and offers a rich visual archive that can be explored through rephotography. One such image-maker is Sweden’s most renowned antiquities conservationist and later landscape architect, Sigurd Curman. Although a dedicated documentarian, Curman’s photographic work is understudied. His photographs of Nämforsen offer views of a place in extreme transition and loss. Through a rephotographic practice, this work actively (re)landscapes and (re)imagines future revisions of a contested landscape.

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.  

Witnessing takes form in various disciplines, from the documentary arts, environmental humanities, and artistic-research. Against ecological violence and climate crisis, artists adress incomplete histories and pervasive myths through the act of witnessing. This presentation aims to raise questions and inspire discussion regarding place-based artistic practice as a form bearing witness to- and reimagining- sites of environmental crisis. I will introduce my doctoral project which focuses on the case of the Nämforsen waterfall-turned-hydropower-plant along the iconic Ångermanälven River in Northern Sweden as a site of collective memory and imaginary potential. Through interpretive environmental rephotography, plant-based photography, and other acts of witnessing and revision, the project aims to problematize urgent challenges in representation and visibility. Drawing upon recent archive/fieldwork from this project-in-progress, this presentation opens up for a dialogue related to themes such as witnessing and revisionary impulses within artistic practice.

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…”

Little Billy is awake, there's an evil presence in his room, luckily his father knows how to handle monsters.

The project In Place of Memory (2013-2015) draws upon personal remembrance while photographing the people and environments of several interconnected villages of Ådalen in northern Sweden. The area, known for the historic workers movement of Ådalen ’31, was during the project-time undergoing change due to a combination of years of steady depopulation and an increase in the population of asylum seekers.

In Place of Memory is photographed between during a time when Sweden is grappling with its identity as a safe haven for the world’s refugees and the rise of xenophobic political parties on the far right. Much like the rest of Europe, Sweden is going through a search for identity in a changing social landscape. As a migrant myself, this work explores themes of identity and place on both a personal and political scale.

May 27 2019 - September 6 2019

Emigrant Memoir is the continuation of an ongoing investigation of the visualization of the migrant experience past and present, the collective and the personal. Thompson is a Swedish-American photographer based in Härnösand, Sweden. Her work explores questions surrounding transience and impermanence on both a personal and political scale.

Thompson uses her unique perspective—channeling her roles as both a native of an immigrant to Sweden—in her approach to issues surrounding migration. Emigrant Memoir includes analog, digital, and experimental film processes to explore migration through the documentary image. Thompson says, “Emigrant Memoir is a series of meditations on and through migration spanning personal and collective migration stories in both the United States and Sweden. We still have our hearts in two places at once and are still negotiating the in-between, looking forward and backward at the same time.”

”Rekonstruktioner / Reconstructions” utforskar plats och den dokumentära bilden genom at återvända till, omcirkulera och revidera bildberättelser från Nämforsen vid Ångermanälven. 

Utställningen Rekonstruktioner är ett kapitel i ett pågående konstnärlig forskningsprojekt ”Revision and the River” som utforskar hur bevittnande och revidering kan skapa berättelser av platser i förändring. Vid Nämforsen byggdes 1944-47 den första av fler än fyrtio kraftverk längs Ångermanälvens avrinningsområde. Det är en industrialiserad fors,  och samtidigt utflyktsmål för många som vill uppleva platsen när ”turistvattnet” flödar under sommaren.  

Hällristningarna vid Nämforsen påminner oss om att människan länge känt impulsen att dokumentera livet. Det är en plats med hög densitet av bildberättelser som sträcker sig från stenåldern till dagens sociala medier. Även under en sommardag förändras bilden av Nämforsen genom att det uppdämda vattnet i forsen tillåts flöda fritt under vissa tider på dygnet i det som kallas för ”turistsläpp” och som beslutats i domstol. Genom refotografi, eller fotografering av samma plats över en tidsrymd, ser vi både hur den sammanvävda landskapet och människan har förändrats, men också kan föreställa oss framtida bilder av Nämforsen. 

Utställningen är en samproduktion mellan Västernorrlands museum och Apotekshuset 

I utställningen "Rekonstruktioner" finns flera serier från Thompsons pågående projekt.

(Utan tittel) En serie refotografiska bildmontage (2022-2024) från Västernorrlands museums bildarkiv och Thompsons fältarbete vid Nämforsen. 

1.     Laxbäcken: Vykort med text “Pelle Molin i sitt arbetet vid Nämforsen, Näsåker, Ångermanland” (Maria Lindbom 1890), från Västernorrlands museum & Linda Maria Thompson, 2023. 

(Diptyk 20x30cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP) 500 inkl. moms

2.     Nämforsen. Linda Maria Thompson & Viktor Lundgren, Västernorrlands museum. Odaterad men troligen 1930-talet. 

Ca 30x40cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP. 1000 SEK inkl moms. 

3.     Triptyk Turister och turistvatten. Linda Maria Thompson & ”Turister studerar hällristningar” 1976 av Bo Hellman, Västernorrlands museum. 

Ca 40x120cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP.  6 000 SEK inkl moms. 

4.     Diptyk vy över Nämforsen. Okänd fotograf, odaterad bild (innan bron byggdes över Ångermanälven), Västernorrlands museum & Linda Maria Thompson, 2023.

5.     Diptyk Johannes på Laxön av Linda Maria Thompson och ”Tallar på Notön” av Viktor Lundgren, troligen 1930-talet från Västernorrlands museum. 

Ca 30x40cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP.  3000 SEK inkl moms. 

Hällristningar och nedströms vy. Viktor Lundgren, Västernorrlands museum & Linda Maria Thompson 2022. 

Ca 30x40cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP.  6 000 SEK inkl moms. 

6.      

7.     Båten dras upp. Viktor Lundgren, odaterad, Västernorrlands musem & Linda Maria Thompson 2023. 

Ca 30x40cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP.  3000 SEK inkl moms. 

8.      

9.     Från Laxön. Linda Maria Thompson 2022 & ”Bo Hellman 1937(?)” Västernorrlands museum.  

Ca. 70x60cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP.  8 000 SEK inkl moms.

10.  Vy uppströms från bron. Linda Maria Thompson & Erik Almqvist 20e juni, 1929, Västernorrlands museum. Ca. cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP.  3 000 SEK inkl moms. 

11.  ”Turistvatten / Tourist-water” (2023) 2 min digital film. När vattenkraftverket vid Nämforsen byggdes ut ytterligare gav miljödomstolen mandat att ”turistsläpp” av älvvattnet skulle ske mellan den 15 juni och den 15 augusti varje dag mellan klockan 8.00 och 22.00 och senare på midsommarafton. Turistvattnet håller bilden av floden vid liv samtidigt som den inte ger ekologiska fördelar.

12.  “Turistvatten, 2022.” Den sista “turistsläppet” av sommaren när vattnet stängs av 22.00 den 15 Augusti och samma plats den 16e Augusti, 2022. Linda Maria Thompson. 

Ca. 65x90cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP 10 000 inkl. moms.

13.   ”Blue(berry) prints” (2023) digitala printkopior av antotyper, eller växtbaserade fotografier som är gjorda av blåbärsemulsion och bilder från kartläggnings- och planeringshandlingarna arkiverade av Vattenfall (Vattenfalls centralarkiv i Näsåker & Riksarkivet i Härnösand). Original-antotyper exponeras i solljus under flera veckor, och kan inte fixeras. 

Ca. 40x30cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP. 1500 SEK inkl moms.

14.  ”Blue(berry)prints” (2023)

(Se ovan beskrivning av teknik). 

Ca. 20x30cm arkivbeständig bläckstråleprint 1/3+2AP. 1000 SEK inkl moms.

15.  "Ett vattenfall / A Waterfall" (2024), en installation av arkivbilder handtonade av konstnären. Arkivfotografierna är tagna av en okänd fotograf och hämtade från en serie med hundratals bilder av Nämforsens utbyggnad 1944-47 från Vattenfalls centralarkiv.

Vellumpapper printar i varierande storlek, monofilament, pigment, Installation ca. 300x200x100cm.         Pris: kontakta konstnären. 

Mikael, a burglar, breaks into what he believes is an empty house in a quiet residential neighbourhood. As he rifles through drawers and explores the rooms, he realises he's not alone—Jonas, a man dressed in his best suit, is in the house, seemingly engaged in some kind of ritual. Mikael quickly hides, but soon realises he may have stumbled into something far more serious than a simple burglary. Unwittingly, he becomes entangled in a pivotal moment in Jonas's life. Now, Mikael faces a difficult choice: Should he intervene, or stay hidden and leave the man to his fate?

A principle is visited by a mother, who is upset that her daughter's school picture has been retouched.

VODA is a photo project about the conditions of seeing and imaging by contemporary documentary photographers. The exhibition wants to shake up established notions about who sees and who is seen. By inviting others to participate in the creative process, the eight photographers want to nuance the image of our times and people's lives through their documentary photo project. By letting the subject be the photographer, VODA explores the theme of power and storytelling – a current issue for many users of various social media. Photographers Elin Berge, David Dahlberg, Alexandra A. Ellis, Malin Grönborg, Johan Gunséus, Sara Lindquist, Linda Maria Thompson and Lars Öberg have worked together on their own documentary projects.