Lars Tunbjörk

Fotografen Lars Tunbjörk (1956-2015) såg Sverige som ingen annan. Hans kameraöga var skarpt avslöjande och ironiskt, men inte utan ömhet. Han såg landet ur periferins perspektiv. Alltid Borås. Hans blick var ny för han visade det som var osynligt för oss: bilden av oss själva och vårt samhälle. Från Borås sträckte sig Lars Tunbjörks karriär ut över hela världen. Bilderna som ställde så många frågor har integrerats i vårt kollektiva minne. Det är fotografi som berättelse, dokumentation och enastående konst. I fotoprojektet Landet utom sig, Lars Tunbjörks genombrott, söker han sig till människor på campingplatser, köpcentrum och varuhus för att berätta om marknadsekonomins grälla intåg i Sverige, en samhällsutveckling som på 1990-talet också var global. Med sin mellanformatskamera och hembyggda blixt skapade han absurdistiska bilder fulla av både humor och vemod. En tunbjörkare blev ett begrepp, och han skrev in sig i fotohistorien. Landet utom sig är en nyutgåva av boken med samma namn som först gavs ut 1993. Utöver de ursprungliga fotografierna och originaltexterna innehåller boken ett nytt förord av Lena Kvist och en uppdaterad text av Göran Greider. The photographer Lars Tunbjörk (1956-2015) saw Sweden like no other. His camera eye was sharply revealing and ironic, but not without tenderness. He saw the country from the perspective of the periphery. Always Borås. His gaze was new because he showed what was invisible to us: the image of ourselves and our society. From Borås, Lars Tunbjörk's career spanned the world. His way of seeing became so powerful that people talked about a "Tunbjörker" as if it were its own genre. The images that raised so many questions have been integrated into our collective memory. It is photography as narrative, documentation and outstanding art. In the photo project Landet utom sig, Lars Tunbjörk's breakthrough, he seeks out people at campsites, shopping centers and department stores to tell the story of the market economy's sudden arrival in Sweden, a social development that in the 1990s was also global. With his medium format camera and homemade flash, he created absurdist images full of both humor and sadness. A 'tunbjörkare' became a concept, and he wrote himself into the history of photography. Landet utom sig (Country Beside Itself) is a new, updated edition of the original book, first published in 1993. In addition to the original photographs and texts, the book includes a new foreword by Lena Kvist and an updated text by Göran Greider.

This is a major retrospective on Lars Tunbjörk and his idiosyncratic visual world. This 300-plus-page book reveals more than 250 of his best images, all imbued with his hallmark eye for the surreal in everyday life.No other contemporary photographer has explored the Swedish soul as thoroughly as Tunbjörk. He visited camping sites, beaches, pizzerias, convenience stores, and service stations, as well as documenting offices and other places of work. The recurring characteristic of all his images is that they are filled with humour and sadness at one and the same time. Even though Tunbjörk’s primary focus was Sweden, he was also one of the country’s best-known international photographers, working regularly with top-flight publications all over the world.The book includes a passage written by Kathy Ryan, New York Times Magazine’s Director of Photography – who worked with Tunbjörk for 20 years – about their special projects. The book also contains an illuminating mini biography of Tunbjörk, written by author and friend Göran Odbratt.The image selection in this magnificent work is by filmmaker and photographer Maud Nycander, who was married to Tunbjörk.