Anders Petersen and JH Engstrom
National Media Museum, Bradford
Varmland is sparsely populated - but they all seem to be out of focus. The people involved in the images in this exhibition were involved in either birth, death or sex. I did not enjoy this exhibition. People in the images seemed to mostly be showing off and not engaging with the photographer in any meaningful way. The images looked much better printed and mounted on the wall than they did in the book. Not my taste at all. They were capturing the mundane and for me that is just not interesting enough.
Varmland is sparsely populated - but they all seem to be out of focus. The people involved in the images in this exhibition were involved in either birth, death or sex. I did not enjoy this exhibition. People in the images seemed to mostly be showing off and not engaging with the photographer in any meaningful way. The images looked much better printed and mounted on the wall than they did in the book. Not my taste at all. They were capturing the mundane and for me that is just not interesting enough.
JH Engstrom said: "Maybe you can't really go back home. But this is where I'm from. These images pay homage to the people and landscape that are my origins. I've returned to something my body and emotions recognise." There were no outstanding images in his set.
Anders Petersen's work had one image that really stood out for me - the horse getting up after rolling - and it was the image they had used at the entrance to the exhibition.
Also at the entrance were copies of books both men have produced. 'Cafe Letmitz' by Anders Petersen contained a wonderful set of images. Taken between 1968-1970 and published in 1978 they show cafe life. Once again they are photographs of people engaged in birth, death and sex - but they are much stronger and evocative.
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