Derived from Maria Miesenberger's private family album the darkly, evocative images of the Sverige / Schweden series create a narrative of epical proportions. Simultaneously sinister and sweet, they disclose and conceal, confront and evade their apparent content--the dreams and nightmares from the memory banks of a childhood. By re-presenting her father's images of her childhood in Austria and Sweden, Miesenberger transforms these images to another order of speech. The persons photographed are no longer recognized as individuals but are set afloat as dark hollow shapes in the image. As the detail and nuances are darkened they become trapdoors in the pictorial surface, leaving us alone with our projections and associations. In these innocent looking images of the small nuclear family an inherited memory is hidden but present, the father's childhood in Austria in the presence of war and genocide is hiding behind the shadows.
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 13 in. / 220 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $62.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $75 ISBN: 9783869301655 PUBLISHER: Steidl AVAILABLE: 3/7/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Derived from Maria Miesenberger's private family album the darkly, evocative images of the Sverige / Schweden series create a narrative of epical proportions. Simultaneously sinister and sweet, they disclose and conceal, confront and evade their apparent content--the dreams and nightmares from the memory banks of a childhood. By re-presenting her father's images of her childhood in Austria and Sweden, Miesenberger transforms these images to another order of speech. The persons photographed are no longer recognized as individuals but are set afloat as dark hollow shapes in the image. As the detail and nuances are darkened they become trapdoors in the pictorial surface, leaving us alone with our projections and associations. In these innocent looking images of the small nuclear family an inherited memory is hidden but present, the father's childhood in Austria in the presence of war and genocide is hiding behind the shadows.
