Photo: Rhonda Prince
09 March 2008
Neighbours
"It's the house facing my windows, in the backyard. I must have taken hundres of images of it, some for trials, some others ... I can't say. It's there right now, while I'm writing this message, under heavy rains. The fabulous thing is that for a bunch of days my house at dawn cast its shadows on it.What I only realized few days ago is that the silhouette of my roof matches with the countour of its windows."
photo: Tiberio Fanti
Jan Bernhardtz, photographer
"I find it difficult writing about myself. There is nothing special about my life. But I'll give it a try. In the beginning of 1960's I borrowed my father's camera to learn how to use one and to understand how to expose a film. I started to explore the art of photography. I spent some time at the photographic school where Christer Strömholm was headmaster."
When trying to make a living as a photographer I discovered that it was more important to be a skilful businessman than an artist and I was a lousy businessman. I earned my living working at a hospital and later for an electronic company. For many years I hardly touched a camera. Most of my images presented here were made in the years 1968-73.
Now I feel a period of revival regarding photography. A political awareness mixed with humour are important ingredients and I suppose many of my images contain a certain amount of bizarre surrealism.
I sometimes think about the images I never took during those years..."
/Jan Berhardtz
You may have seen the Bengt Björkbom Archives or the William Schmidt Archives here on the F Blog. This is our way of presenting photographers or photos that will not fit to just a single blog post or as a guest invitation. We dedicate the "Archives" to longer series or to an extended presentation of a photographer that we appreciate. I am glad to see Jan Bernhardtz taking part in this effort, and I hope he will share a lot more of his work here./Ulf