houses and trees

F columns / Thomas H Johnsson

I love Landskrona where I, most often, live. But sometimes it gets too small, too calm, too lively, too boring. That’s when I go to Copenhagen. It doesn’t take more than an hour by train, you can’t go by boat anymore but taking the train is just as good as well. Don’t know why I don’t go there more often, I should. I blame it on not having enough time, but I know that’s too easy of an explanation.

I have a lot of things going on right now. I have to make time for Nothing. That Nothing is important. I accidentally eavesdropped on B and V some time ago, outside the backstage area of the rock club The Tivoli in Helsingborg, they had played, and I had showed some images. It was night and quiet, the kind of quiet you get after a concert when the club has closed up. B’s voice: - If you’re going to phone Thomas you need to have a reason, you don’t phone him just to have a cup of coffee.


I don’t know if that’s the kind of reputation I want. Don’t think so, actually like going out for coffee and I am actually a social-minded person, but with a great need for solitude.

There was a time when I went to Copenhagen at least one time a week. At least during the warm periods of the year.

H and I had borrowed a boat and anchored it in Christianshavn, just by Christiania, it was before the drug clean-up reform. Here we lived. In central Copenhagen on o boat on the canal. It was summer and we were the salty sailors who held parties seven nights a week. Slept in daytime and lived at night.


The following story is retold word-for-word and takes place in a club where a glass of wine costs 700 Danish krone (but a lot more than wine is included, mind you). We’re hanging out at the bar, each having a Hof (ordering a Hof nothing more is included, but it costs 80 Danish krone). As always, H is more than moderately intoxicated but quite relaxed. A girl who was not a virgin turns her warm bosom towards him and asks if he can buy her a glass of wine. H looks up at her with foggy eyes, thinks for a moment, and says:

-Why don’t you by me a glass? You probably make more money than I do.

That’s when it was time to leave, and later on the evening ended quite drastically. It makes me think about another time, I a similar area, with the same protagonist, but in Paris. A story far too long to be retold here.


We also got some work done back in those days. I remember one idea about a full day with the family in Copenhagen for 500 Danish krone. Like a fieldtrip guide in the form of a reportage. We strolled around among historic sites and free-of-charge museums, H wrote and I took the pictures. I the reportage you were supposed to get tips about where you could get a decent lunch. We found a deli where we got some wine, cheese and bread. We sat down by Söerna, the sun was shining, couples were making out, the birds were singing and life was wonderful.
Suddenly H says:

-Do you know what we’re doing right now?
-Err…no? I ask and take a sip of the wine.
-We’re working, he says with a grin.

We weren’t handling any big money in those days, but we got by, things always worked out. We had a good time and I don’t remember us ever going without food. If life got too small, too calm, too lively, too boring we went to Copenhagen. There was always time for that then. There should always be enough time for Copenhagen. There should always be enough time for that Nothing.

Text and photos ©Thomas H Johnsson
Invited by Fredrik Skott and Lina Nääs.

Fabrik

©Fredrik Skott

invited photographer: Henrik Sundblad

I am very happy to have the possibility to present Henrik Sundblad as an invited photographer on the F blog. Besides being an old friend of mine, Henrik is doing his master's degree in photography at the School of Photography, University of Gothenburg. Right now it's possible to see some of his prints at Galleri Spark in Copenhagen. At November 22nd his work is also exhibited at Alingsås Konsthall, Sweden. Please also check out his homepage.

The ones not screwed to the wall ©Henrik Sundblad

Partially uncomposed in space ©Henrik Sundblad

Logic©Henrik Sundblad

Hello morning duel in the deep abyss ©Henrik Sundblad

Function painted on ©Henrik Sundblad

Firmly established misconception ©Henrik Sundblad

Invited by Fredrik Skott

Old Pola Neg

© Jeanne Wells
it was such beautiful stuff, wasn't it?

Gruppo F inbox: Johan Emanuelsson

© Johan Emanuelsson

Sannah Kvist:: Unruly girls

www.sannahkvist.se

Ciganos

I met this family in the last summer, gypsy mercado in Fundao (Pt). The man, when he saw me with big MF camera called me to come. He said: please, make us a picture. We are last Gypsies living due to old rules. My wife has to dress the black clothes in this heat. It is a hard life and world does not know about it and about us. We will stay on those pictures for years and people watching us will think of us, our fate and this what has passed away.

Then he took his comb, brushed his beard and said - now.
He asked me to make the portraits of his wife and daughter. His wife was happy that the world will see her black clothes and some unknown people far away may think of her, even when she will be gone.
I stood speachless...making just 3 pictures instead of several films...

Gruppof inbox: Kamila Kulik

If you are in Stockholm.

Agnes Cecilia - en sällsam historia

Fredrik made me think of this old bird

Trees

All photographs © Tamara Reynold

Gruppo F inbox: Karin Bengtsson

Face to Face

Photo: Alek Lindus

Down on Highway 61

Leland Mississippi, hometown of such blues legendaries as Son Thomas and Johnny Winter. James "Son" Thomas, whose chair that is hanging on the wall, started out in Leland as a gravedigger -- but according to his son, Pat Thomas who frequently entertains visitors at the Leland Blues Museum, gravedigging was too hard on his back, so he had to take up playing the guitar instead.

Småland

White cow grabs an apple

Gruppof inbox: Paolo Saccheri

Everything seems to point in the same direction...But where?

utan titel

Gruppof inbox: Seba Kurtis - 700 miles (The changing face of America)

"Borders are imaginary lines that require specific documentation to pass through and to stay on the other side. Certain individuals set these boundaries and rules that determine who is entitled to cross over these discriminatory lines and stay and who is not. For those concerned the imaginary concept becomes real and interferes with lives.

There are currently 45million Hispanics working or living in the USA, (particularly from Mexico) of which 12 million are suspected illegal. As Americans start families later and opt for smaller families the Hispanics contribution is responsible for half of the population growth. This rapid expansion has created widespread fear of losing the “traditional American identity” and crushing the American dream as Hispanics may be in a majority within the next century if current trends are maintained.

This diluting of their race is an unwelcome prospect. It breeds insecurity in some American citizens who are fearful of the face of America being changed. An anti-immigrant crusade has developed to prevent illegal aliens from crossing the southern border. In 2006 President Bush who opposes amnesty, authorised the fencing of 700miles (1/3 of the 2100miles) of the US-Mexico border of the states of California, Texas and Arizona. This $2.2 billion project is yet to materialise, but has been compared to the Berlin Wall and has been poorly received by neighbouring Mexico. The American economy enjoys the benefits of cheap labour, taxes are even deducted from the wages of illegal workers, but the government does not offer rights to citizenship or the chance to cross the border legally.

Patriotic Americans have also given up their free time to become vigilantes “Minutemen”, who secure the border themselves and report any infiltration to border police from 24hour video cameras in the comfort of their own home, from a simple internet down load. Private individuals have also made donations to enable the “Minutemen” to start construction of the fence themselves as they feel betrayed by the slow political response.

I was living as an illegal immigrant in Europe for more than 5 years, so this body of work is based on an understanding of being a man with no rights."



-Seba Kurtis

invited photographer: Anna Edlund

In July, at the exhibition Planket ("the fence") in Gothenburg, especially one serie of photographs got my attention - Anna Edlund's "Här går vi" ("Here we go"). Now I am very happy to introduce Anna Edlund as an invited photographer at the F blog!


Here we go
Here are nine pictures from a series of sixteen. These sixteen are all pedestrian symbols on the pavement of a street in Gothenburg, Herkulesgatan.
With a simple technique (taken with a Holga 120n) and with multiple images I want to show a pattern that for me is a lot about communication. Communication between the viewer and the pictures, the "doodling" artist and us, the man and the child. What do we see in the symbol?
This is the street where we walk.
I want to put some light on the public space and our inner space. Spaces where we spend time but might not stop and reflect about where we are, what we see and where we walk and where we are going.
- Anna Edlund

All photographs © Anna Edlund.
Don't miss to check out her homepage.
Invited by Fredrik Skott.