22 November 2006

Invited guest: Sanna Sjöswärd

I´m proud to present Sanna Sjöswärd who recently have given out a book called Roots and that also have a exhibition with the same name at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. The exhibit made a great impact on me and I strongly recomend you to go and see it and you can also take a look at her homepage http://www.sannafoto.se/ were you also can order her book.

Here are her own words:

The photograph of the steps of the Childrens Home is etched in my memory. But the only details I can remember are the red jacket, the white pantyhose and the black polished heeled shoes that I had been given by my adoptive parents. The girl is four years old. She is waiting to be fetched by someone, saved by someone. I am only a child. Though adult in a way. I had learned how to fold clothes and not to spill when eating.
I was born in Teheran 1973 and christened Farzaneh. In Persian that means wise. It was not possible for my biological mother, Sedighere, to take care of me on her own. When I was a few months old I was handed over to the Farah Diba-foundation home for children. My biological parents were in the process of separating and they already had two children, my sisters Faranoz and Leila.
Mother told me today that when I was born, I did little other than eat and sleep. And that I was a very fat baby.
At the Childrens Home I was told that my mother visited me every day until I was 11 months old. The visits ceased from that time on and nobody knew why.
According to Iranian law a child can not be lawfully adopted before three years have passed. This was the reason I was four years old before I could leave the Childrens Home The Lion and the Sun and emigrate to Sweden. I was by then, in 1977, the oldest child in the Childrens Home.
I grew up in a middle-class area in Lidingö. During my upbringing, I often wondered about my biological roots. In my fantasy I imagined my mother was a Persian princess. I knew that she was tall, had long black henna-dyed hair and had green eyes, for I had seen her on TV. Sometimes I stood before the mirror with a sheet around my head and tried to imagine that we were alike.


Invited by Mikael Jansson












13 comments:

Fredrik Skott said...

Wonderful and very alive pictures. Thanks for sharing them.
- f.f

Anonymous said...

Very impressive photography of a kind that I very much welcome here at the F blog.
Thanks Micke and above all thanks Sanna for sharing this great set
of pictures!

chrisw1r said...

Hi Sanna,
I'm happy you are here. Micke and I looked at your photos in Kulturhuset a few months ago, and they are very good. Photo as your personal journey, so to say. I think they lift part of the cultural veil which is so difficult to get past as a visitor. With a foot in two cultures (in a way) you succeed in doing this!
-C

Exposed Material said...

Your pictures belong to the more interesting I've seen for a long time. They certainly lift the cultural veil, as C wrote. Thanks for sharing with us!

Anonymous said...

beautiful pictures of uknown to us daily life of people living not that far from us. Thank you for showing us bit of this world, to help to let understand to everybody that we all share the same joys and problems.

Anonymous said...

I´m realy happy that Sanna wanted to participate and there´s so many more great pictures in her exhibit and in her other work!
Thank´s Sanna for being here with us!

Jeanette said...

I happy to see you here Sanna!!! Nice mix of posing and captures of a moment.



Jeanette

Markus said...

I love the serene portraits of the 4 women. And ofcourse the colorful little girl smiling with the black dressed lady in the back. We need more of this kind of empathic and compassioned photography. Thanks Sanna!
/markus

F said...

I do love this, showing visions that is far from the newspictures and the medias image of a country. So much more alive. Great to see, and bigthanks for sharing it with us here, also thanks to Mikael for the invitation.

/Christofer

F said...

I also looked at your exhibition at Kulturhuset and it made a strong impact on me to. Especially remember one showing your mother alone, here eyes are very expressful. You can alomst see her whole life in them, and then the contrast seeing her at young age with makup, this is so strong - like a journey true Iran.

And the the third picture showing a blanket hanging uot to dry, full of colors against the green in nature, I just love that one!

/Thomas

F said...

The vertical portraits would have to be my favorites.

Great to come along on your journey, Sanna. Thanks for sharing.

J. S-g.

Anonymous said...

A lot of differents feelings in your photos.
I think that's must reflect the diversity of life's moments, the diversity of people you photographied, this must be a sign of deep respect from you, a deep sensibility.
I'm very happy to discover your work and go further, I'm deeply touched.
Merci !

mats äleklint said...

I saw your photos at kulturhuset, and was very impressed! Thanks for sharing it on the f-blog.

/mats