ENGSTRÖM, JH - La Résidence

Background information

"'In photography, JH ENGSTRÖM isn't trying to explain, but rather to render a profound experience of the absurdity of the human condition. These images move us into a disquieting part of ourselves: our solitude on earth.' That is how Jean-Louis Godefroid ends his foreword to JH Engström's new book, the result of two scholarship sojourns at the Contretype photo organization in Brussels."

Content

"The photo volume 'La Résidence' by JH ENGSTROEM is comprised of 29 snapshot-like triptych gatefolds interspersed with his typically restrained pictorials on borderless double-page spreads and brief bursts of diary comments. All images were shot in Brussels, Belgium. (...) The book "has been awarded World’s Best Book Award. JH ENGSTRÖM's photo volume was up against 540 nominated books for the prize, which has been organised by Stiftung Buchkunst (German Foundation for Book Art) since 1963. (...) The selection committee writes: 'Nothing dramatic takes place, no lessons are being taught – but as each sequence elicits greater curiosity, for the spectator, browsing and folding his or her way through the pages, a personal individual story emerges, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.” And further they called it “a fascinating, eye-opening book – interaction without anything having to be plugged in.'" (© Peter Nitsch)

Additional information

Out-of-print photo volume 'La Residence' is designed by swedish graphic designer Greger Ulf NILSON and was selected as one of the 'Best (photo eye) Books' of 2010 by Melanie McWhorter.

About the Swedish photographer, JH ENGSTROEM (b. 1969, in Karlstad)

Photo books by JH ENGSTRÖM