A few days ago, I had the chance to visit
Fotografiska when my cousin came to town for a visit. I had been hoping to get an opportunity to visit as they have opened up five new exhibitions over the past four weeks or so and I was curious to see them. I actually don't remember Fotografiska opening this many new exhibitions in such a short period of time. One thing that I particularly like about Fotografiska is that they make sure that the exhibitions they show differ enough from one another that all visitors will (hopefully) find something that appeals to them. I will concentrate on two of the main exhibitions in this article.... but you can see the whole list by
clicking here.
The first exhibition we visited was the aptly named
"Homage to Humanity" by Jimmy Nelson (showing until Dec 1st). Nelson, a British-Dutch photographer, has travelled the world over the past 30 years, visiting some of the most isolated places on the planet and photographing the local inhabitants. Papua New Guinea, Siberia, Namibia, French Polynesia, Bhutan, Mexico and the top of the Andes are just some of the places he visited.
The photographs are gorgeous and Nelson really captures the specific beauty of each of his subjects... sometimes with individual portraits and other times in the groups with astounding natural backdrops. As his subjects literally come from the four corners of the world, it felt at times like you were stepping into the pages of your favorite National Geographic articles. One aspect I found curious was that the majority of his subjects had adorned their faces in some way, whether with paint, scarring or tattoos. Just shows how much more we are all alike than not.
The second exhibition we visited was really the polar opposite to the "Homage to Humanity" in many ways:
"Gold" by Sebastião Salgado (showing until Nov 17th). This series of photographs were taken by Salgado in 1986 at the infamous Serra Pelado gold mines in Brazil. Instead of the varied and colorful beauty of world cultures, this exhibition looks instead at the misery of poverty and the lengths mankind will go through for a better life.
The gold mines of
Serra Pelado were basically an enormous, muddy pit in the Amazon forest. Thousands of miners worked these pits, climbing in and out on rickety ladders often carrying sacks of earth. It is Salgado's wide shots of the pits filled with mud-covered workers that I found mesmerizing... the photographs, in black and white, take on an almost abstract appearance at first until you realize what you are looking at. Then it is almost impossible not to think of termite mounds or anthills.
Besides these two exhibitions, you also have Saga Wendotte's
"In Between Realities" (until Nov 17th) and Christian Houge's
"Residence of Impermanence" (until Nov 24th).
Fotografiska is located on the northern waterfront of Södermalm, just a 15-20 minute walk from the
Hotel Rival. The closest subway/bus station is Slussen (10 minute walk from the museum). One extra special aspect of Fotografiska is their generous opening hours, closing at 11pm on Sun-Wed and 1am on Thurs-Sat. They also have a
café and award-winning
restaurant on the top floor with views of the harbor... well worth a visit.
Click here to read about my recent visit to the restaurant.
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