The photograph creates nearness to the viewer through its convincing representation of what is photographed. The technology of colour photography has perfected this simulation of the real or the seen far beyond what the eye itself is capable of. Meanwhile, technological perfection bears an intrinsic ambivalence: The nearness can, in its turn, create a distance to the viewer.
The process of drawing is in many ways the opposite of photography. While you in the 60th of a second capture the finest details within the viewfinder, you have to concentrate for hours marking by hand on a sheet of paper what you see in front of you, and still the image seems coarse and clumsy compared to the photo. But there are big advantages within the drawing practice: you simply can rearrange or ignore your motif, and turn to your inner view. The handmade sketch gives, no matter good or bad, the feeling of authenticity and nearness to the viewer.
Emotional nearness is one aspect about pictures with which I have been concerned in my artistic practice. The choice of materiality is important in this respect. The tactile appeal of intaglio printing and the photographic quality are closely related in the pictorial series “All We See.” Here, the creation of illusion is suppressed in deference to qualities such as choice of paper and ink. It is not the capacity for imitation that is the goal, rather, to examine and underscore what happens in the space between the photograph and the fine art print. The combination of simple black drawings, on and beside these prints, is both a contrast to the photo-mechanical approach of the picture, as well as a support for the individuality of each one.
This is my try of bringing two opposing ways of image-making together. The motives chosen for the drawing part, are all taken from everyday trivial situations, while the printed motives are details from the teenage faces of my daughter and son: Underneath the surface, time is working and the pictured scenes will change; the shoes will be worn out, the computer will be outranged and kids grow into adults.
