On borrowed time, by Henrik Malmström.

Watching through the window, the rain falling outside, this brings me back in time, a few years ago, thinking about a haunting book. It has been a few months since I wanted to talk about it : On borrowed time, by Henrik Malmström.

The book was printed in 2010, in 500 copies, and contains photographs made from November 2007 to April 2008.

Well, I should say that the book is beautiful, but it won’t give it justice. In 1999, Henrik’s older sister was diagnosed a cancer. She fought for years and what we discover in this book is her final fight, when she went back to hospital for the last few months.

In his foreword, Jörn Donner explains perfectly what is so important with this book. In fact, most of us are not afraid of death, but we are afraid of the painful period that can accompany each of us on the way to the passing away.

What Henrik documents here, is his relationship to his sister, but also with her forthcoming death. That was probably the way he found to stay beside her, and maybe to make what is happening acceptable and bearable. Fully in black and white, we come on board with Henrik for his journey from greyness to the night.

The book alternates pictures of Maija (Henrik’s sister) with outside views of the hospital as metaphors of a lost freedom, and details on which we focus during visits like if we did not want to face the death coming, looking elsewhere to avoid the pain. Some blurry pictures reflect our distress, the spirit can’t stand anymore the sadness and we’re loosing our mind. There is such a kind of photograph on the cover in which we can see an angel flying or maybe the soul living the body !

The two last photographs are absolutely stunning, we discover a train in the night which emphasizes the death coming to take away the body. The modernization of the society has changed the death from the well known “The Seventh Seal” to a train driver.

The second and last one shows Maija’s legs beside the drip system rolls, slightly out of focus, like a reminiscent image of the memory. This is how Maija will remain in everyone’s mind in the family. On the opposite of this picture, Maija’s last words, about her expectations that have been stolen. Is it fair to not even reach thirty ? Who had the right to do that ? Unfortunately for her, but also for all of us the question will remain unanswered.

Henrik Malmström is Finnish, but his name is Swedish (there is a wide Swedish community in the West part of Finland) so I can’t avoid thinking to this beautiful song by John Holm : Ett enskilt rum på Sabbatsberg, about a young person sitting beside another one dying to accompany her during her last moments at Sabbastberg’s hospital (Stockholm).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guQEP5gQtmU

Well, I could talk for hours, but that would not be worth a look at the book ! The book is self published with texts in English, Finnish and Swedish. The trade edition is now out of print, but you can still find copies of the limited edition on Henrik’s site :

http://www.henrikmalmstrom.com/?page_id=21

All images copyright Henrik Malmström

To be a photographer in the extreme north ! Kåre Kivijärvi and Sune Jonsson.

Not technically completely in winter, but this time of the year is a perfect time to focus on two wonderful photographers, whose works deserved to be enlightened.

Kåre Kivijärvi is a Norwegian photographer born in 1938, in Hammerfest, the world northernmost town, and Sune Jonsson was born, in 1930, in Nyåker in the northern part of Sweden named Västerbotten. They are photographers of the same generation, but they had different influences.

Sune Jonsson, is a self-educated social concerned photographer who has learnt ethnology and literature in Uppsala, he is also a writer. His work often refers to August Sander and Walker Evans, especially because his work mainly focus on the rural life and its people. Like Evans and Sander, he tried to observe all aspects of the traditionnal rural life.

His most famous work was « Byn med det blå huset » (the village with the blue house) published in 1959 (listed in Parr Badger Vol I).

In this book, we discover the simple everyday life of inhabitants of a village in his native county of Västerbotten and we feel a strong empathy for every human being he met. He drives us around the village and, with him, we meet the neighbours like « Farbror Viktor », « Hedvig Gunnarsson » or « Natan ». The photographs are organised by topics and this village becomes a symbol of every village in the north of Sweden.

He made a few more books, mainly related to the topic of rural life and farmers, except one which is about a Swedish mission in Congo. I would fairly recommend « Minnesbok över den Svenske bonden » which is a kind of encyclopedia about farming in Sweden (and the book can be found for an affordable price which is not the case of « Byn med… »). We discover farmers working outside, people living at home, animals… organised, once again by topics. The photos come with an essay and many fact sheets. This book, published in 1971 by LTs Verlag, is very interesting in being an inventory of agriculture in Sweden in the late 60’s and probably my favorite one amongst the books I know (of course I don’t know every books made by Sune Jonsson).

The story of Kåre Kivijärvi is completely different. He started studying photography with Otto Steinert in Germany, and was mainly working as a journalist. For that reason, he got many assignments all over the world (Spain, USSR, India, Nepal…). If Sune Jonsson gained notoriety with the Parr Badger reference, Kåre Kivijärvi did not get that chance and remained unknown. I discovered his work when I went to Hammerfest in spring, and, so far, I only know two books about his work. The work of Kåre Kivijärvi is organised in series when Sune Jonsson had a lifetime project.

What I like the most in his work is when he focused on the life in Norway, particularly in the area where he is from. We discover some very harsh landscapes. Photos are printed with a high contrast, mainly black and white which emphasizes the extreme climate and life conditions; during winter, the nature turns to black and white. In the composition of the images, we find the reminiscences of Otto Steinert’s influence. Each photograph has a strong organisation and I am still very surprised that some of his pictures had not become more iconic. For a Findus assignment, he spent a lot of time with fishermen, going out for some fish campaigns in the artic sea, and we discover the life on board, with the expectations, joys and breaks of men.

Here below is a self portrait.

Another part of his work which really interest me is his photographs of the Leastadian community (the closer reference I could find to explain this religion is the film by Lars Von trier: Breaking the waves). He was raised in a Laestadian family and he perfectly knows the organisation of the community, this could be one of the reason why he got access to their most intimate meetings and was so easily accepted. In this series, we discover a social photographer who is trying to understand the organisation of our society, and what defines the relationship between people.

Well, there would be much more to say about his work which can, unfortunately, only be seen in Hammerfest Gallery Verk which was officially granted to represent the photographer.

Some useful links, unfortunately in Swedish and Norwegian:

http://www.sunejonsson.se/

http://www.nb.no/utstillinger/kivijarvi/

http://www.verk.no/

And a poem, as a tribute to Kivijärvi, by John Burnside, Scothish writer : http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/1/artsinscotland/literature/features/archive/poemseptember2004.aspx

All ilmages copyright Sune Jonsson, Kåre Kivijärvi and the publishers. Can be removed on request.