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Personal statement by Norwegian photographer Simen JOHAN
"When working on an image, I strive to create tension and confuse the boundaries between opposing forces, such as the familiar and the otherworldly, the natural and the artificial, the amusing and the eerie. I often feel like I am attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable as I explore the paradoxical nature of existence, its simultaneous abundance of beauty and horror. For example, in one of my photographs, two moose in combat are set upon by a flock of tropical parakeets behaving at once ravenous and playful. The overlapping ecosystems—northern moose, tropical birds, and signs of human civilization in the desert valley below—evoke a world where human intervention has caused ecological disarray.” (Simen JOHAN)
Background information, content
"The out-of-print photo book 'Until the Kingdom Comes' is the third volume by Norwegian photographer Simen JOHAN, who has lived and worked in New York since 1992. The title of the project is derived from a part of the prayer commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, in which Jesus prays: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This part of the prayer refers to the expectation and desire for a future state that will transform the earth into something that was lost in the expulsion from the Garden of Eden - a state of peaceful bliss and coexistence between God, man and nature.
Simen JOHAN recalls the tale of Eden with his photograph of a tangle of python silhouettes coiled around a branch. Although the animals are often photographed in isolation from other species, they are not seen as specimens. They embody the mental state of expectation and defeat. Between the fauna images are several other types of photographs. Simulations of marbled paper are printed in the place of the book cover. The swirls of color set the color palette of the book and are also a foreshadowing of the soiled liquid surfaces in the book.
Additional information
The two-part publication 'Until the Kingdom Comes' is limited to 75 numbered and signed copies, comes in a clothbound clamshell box and contains twenty-eight photographs on sixty-four pages. The pages are unbound.