No Man's Land

"No Man’s Land" is about a close circle of people in a small village on the Swedish island of Öland. Here, farmers live side by side with an artist commune. Their lives and work are intertwined. The farmers become involved in art projects and the artists help with the farming. After living there for many years, I know the villagers well. I’ve seen the dynamics close-up. By portraying everyday life in the village, I describe the common ambition to mean something to others; to be part of a context. The starting point of the project is my own experience of when that context was taken away from me. The end of a relationship turned into an emotional trauma. It’s about how my life in the village is falling apart, and how I then leave a much-loved place. The 34 photos in the series are documentary and taken from my books “Across the Bridge” (Journal, 2016) and “No Man’s Land” (Journal, 2023). My artist statement is the introductory text in "No Man's Land".