Sken

2022-

Digital photographs from photo-installation with

camera flash, digital camera and ultra sound sensor.

In Sken I use a camera flash from the 1980's thats was found with my grandfather's photo equipment. When connected to an ultra sound sensor that measures distance, the sensor triggers the camera and flash when an object (me) comes within the decided distance.

The strong and sudden light from a camera flash, which is usually used to illuminate objects and people during photography in dark conditions, becomes an object of its own that I interact with in the photo session's creation of pictures. The light from the flash composes the pictures by blending into the background like another sun, blinding an area in the picture or creating a focus point in the form of a light source.

In a trial and error process of deforming and understanding image memory and its effect on identity and personal history, I investigate how the pictures I revisit re-shape memories and feelings around the time when the image was created.

The work's title Sken translates Light, but also has the meaning ostensibly or disguised- when something is made to look like something other than it is. The Swedish saying "Förd bakom ljuset" is used to decribe when someone is not given the whole picture or told the truth and is an example of how light is used to describe veracity and a person’s perspective of reality. Photos used with flash are often seen in crime movies when a mystery is being solved or the truth being revealed. The contradiction of the words meaning and the use of it, is a reminder of how easy it is to shape, deceive or change an event through images.