postcard from Bieszczady

Amerika - Through Windows

Nearby where I live, there is a rather extensive "koloniområde" (english, "allotment" - thanks Andreas!): a place with small cottages and gardens, where people can relax during the summer, and grow their own vegetables and flowers.

The name of the place is "Amerika", and it´s probably Sweden´s oldest allotment - it´s from the 1880`s and it´s located in the small society of Jonsered. During the end of that century there were hard times in Sweden, and it´s well know of course that a lot of people all over Europe emigrated to the USA. The emigrations was a threat to the industry in Jonsered: the factories lost skilled and productive staff. So, in order to retain the employees, they were offered a bribe, a piece of land in the south of the society. The land became a surrogate for the new country in the west, so it was named "Amerika".

At the moment I am working on documenting abandoned cottages in Amerika - structures, memories, that slowly falls apart interest me. This little serie is a small part of that documentation , and it´s almost a by product of the project. The main part of the images are just photos on the cottages from different angels, in a traditional style. But, I noticed that there sometimes was a lot of stuff left in some of the cottages. So I started to take pictures of that too, through the windows. I liked the result, so..