THE LANGUAGE OF THINGS

LARS GUSTAFSSON

// Lars is from Stockholm Sweden and has been into photography for a long time now. A professional photographer, he usually takes pictures of things others want him to, but for him photography is an obsession more than a profession. This is where the still life series he shared with us comes in.

Lars is trained at the University college of art, craft and design. His work has been internationally published and exhibited.

“Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collectors´ passion borders on the chaos of memories.”

W Benjamin
Illuminations (1968 edition)

What draws you to the arts?

“The fantastic moment when you understand others’ experiences beyond the language of words.”

What do you like best about this photographic project?

“For me, photography is closely linked to collecting and remembering, I collect the objects that become my still life pictures, and I photograph in part to remember. And sometimes I think that every picture I make begins as a memory.“

His series ”The Still Life” is a series of pictures of objects that he started around 2017. “I actually do not think it will ever be finished,” he says. “I have always looked for objects to photograph, found things, picked up rubbish and abandoned objects, and took them to my studio to photograph them. Maybe in an attempt to find what is sometimes called the language of things, or maybe to try to lend a voice to something seemingly dumb.”

In an attempt to simplify and concentrate the pictures, Lars started painting the objects in different shades of gray, so that what remains is the shape and volume that the light creates, and the objects’ relationship to each other. He also started reusing the same objects over and over again in his pictures, trying out their different interrelationships. “I do not want my pictures to be loud or noisy, not intrusive or provocative,” he adds. “I seek a peace, a still life, and the way there is for me through the repetition and the monotonous, the silence.”

Click on the photos to see a larger image and the image title. Images may be cropped for layout.