© Jan Svenungsson/Bildupphovsrätt 2024
Det perfekta fotografiet
Artist
Jan Svenungsson
(Sverige, född 1961)
Alternate Title
- [Skorsten, vid MM]
Date1992
MediumFärgfotografi typ C
DimensionsBildmått: 33,1 × 26,3 cm
ClassificationPhotography
Credit LineDonation 1994 from the artist
Object NumberFM 1994 019 001
The artwork is not on display
About the artworkThe perfect photo.
Together, the graininess, highlights and shadows lend a credibility to the photograph that reaches far beyond the surface of the picture. This capacity of the photo to convince is not solely dependent on the fact that the pictorial elements are the result of the motif, but may also have been caused by technical factors, or photographic mistakes.
The awareness of how the perception of a picture can be manipulated by conditions outside the immediate motif-photo relationship was my starting-point when I began to work artistically with photography in 1986.
Initially, I mainly photographed existing pictures. I used B/W film and mounted my prints in specially-designed frames. When I grew tired of trying to "find" new pictures, I came across a brick chimneystack in Stockholm, which I decided was a suitable subject for my "own" pictures. For four years, I exploited this inherently expressionless motif. Using various methods I explored ways of altering the image; sharp, fuzzy, night or day, damaged film - but I refrained from using colour. I envisioned my pictures, my "photo objects" as being opaque - i.e. that they did not serve as windows to reality, but rather as mirrors for the viewer's own illusions.
In August 1992, two bricklayers and I built a 10-metre brick chimney outside Moderna Museet on Skeppsholmen in Stockholm.
When the chimney was finished and the building site cleared up, I had one morning in which to photograph my work for the exhibition catalogue. I went to work with great concentration. My intention this time was to execute a perfect depiction of the motif. And I succeeded in my quest.
The photograph opens like a window on the reality I have constructed.
On Friday, 17 September, 1994, the chimney on Skeppsholmen was demolished, as planned.
/Jan Svennungsson, 1994
Description Konstnärens verk, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm
Together, the graininess, highlights and shadows lend a credibility to the photograph that reaches far beyond the surface of the picture. This capacity of the photo to convince is not solely dependent on the fact that the pictorial elements are the result of the motif, but may also have been caused by technical factors, or photographic mistakes.
The awareness of how the perception of a picture can be manipulated by conditions outside the immediate motif-photo relationship was my starting-point when I began to work artistically with photography in 1986.
Initially, I mainly photographed existing pictures. I used B/W film and mounted my prints in specially-designed frames. When I grew tired of trying to "find" new pictures, I came across a brick chimneystack in Stockholm, which I decided was a suitable subject for my "own" pictures. For four years, I exploited this inherently expressionless motif. Using various methods I explored ways of altering the image; sharp, fuzzy, night or day, damaged film - but I refrained from using colour. I envisioned my pictures, my "photo objects" as being opaque - i.e. that they did not serve as windows to reality, but rather as mirrors for the viewer's own illusions.
In August 1992, two bricklayers and I built a 10-metre brick chimney outside Moderna Museet on Skeppsholmen in Stockholm.
When the chimney was finished and the building site cleared up, I had one morning in which to photograph my work for the exhibition catalogue. I went to work with great concentration. My intention this time was to execute a perfect depiction of the motif. And I succeeded in my quest.
The photograph opens like a window on the reality I have constructed.
On Friday, 17 September, 1994, the chimney on Skeppsholmen was demolished, as planned.
/Jan Svennungsson, 1994
Description Konstnärens verk, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm