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Background information
In addition to her artistic practice, Hannah Modigh has worked with homeless people for many years. At some point, Britt-Marie asked to be photographed. She knew that Hannah Modigh was a photographer and did not have a picture of herself. Afterwards, Britt-Marie wrote a poem that made Hannah Modigh realize that perhaps the photograph gave her more than the picture itself, that something also happened when she was photographed. This moment was the starting point for the photographs in the portrait series/book Archive of Desire, which is now also performed as a slide show set to music. Hannah Modigh met the women portrayed through Klaragården in Stockholm, a day center for women experiencing homelessness. They don't have a home, but a home isn't just physical - a home can also mean feeling at home with yourself. What the women have in common is a longing.
The photo book 'Archive of Longing' by Swedish photographer Hannah MODIGH brings together soulful portraits of homeless women. 'Archive of Longing' was born out of Susan Sontag's thesis from her book 'On Photography' (1977): To photograph is to participate in the mortality, vulnerability, and mutability of another person (or thing). The encounter between the photographer and the person being photographed. In the different stages, it is not only the encounter with another person, but we put ourselves in what we are looking at. What attracts our eye and heart says more about ourselves than perhaps the person we are looking at. By observing and participating in the lives of others, we learn something about ourselves and our desires.
'The women of Klaragården know something about losing things, they know what longing is.' Each of these portraits was born at a particular time in history. Between their entry into the world and their arrival in front of Hannah MODIGH's analog medium format camera, their destinies have unfolded and shaped them. The details of these lives are not known, but now we see their faces, their looks, their rise, their jewelry, their tattoos, their clothing and accessories, and the energy that their respective portraits convey. They come from somewhere and go somewhere, the photographer has plucked a version of them from the river of time.' (freely translated, for the original: © Jenny Maria Nilson)
Content
The paperback photo volume 'Archive of Longing' by Hannah MODIGH contains 55 full-page color portraits as well as a personal statement by the Swedish photographer and a concluding text by Jenny Maria Nilson. Both texts are reproduced in Swedish and English. At some points in the photo volume, the flow of reading is interrupted by foographs of urban places. The black-and-white photographs, printed on transparent paper, refer graphically to the portraits opposite. The book design is by Patric LEO.