“Brålanda” by Gerry Johansson (via hd.se)

Browsing the photo book section in my local library, the one I thought I had exhausted, I found a copy of Gerry Johansson’s book Sverige (that’s “Sweden” in, well, Swedish). Each spread in this book has one small (about 9x9 cm), black and white photo. The only text denotes the town or locality where the photo is taken, there’s only one photo from each locality and they’re presented in alphabetical order.

Obviously, no photo in Sverige is able to describe more than the scene it depicts but the whole feels like a very interesting vision of Sweden. There are no people, few cars or (surprisingly, when I think about it) bicycles. Despite the relative lack of bicycles (they’re ubiquitous in Sweden) I feel familiar with the scenes in a lot of the photos, having now lived in Sweden for a year and a half.

Photographs like Johansson’s in Sverige often have a remarkable anonymous quality; they feel like they could have been taken anywhere. What’s interesting is how when presented together they represent something more specific. Admittedly I’m very curious what a Norwegian or a Dane would read from Sverige. For that matter I wonder what my own reaction, as an Icelander, would have been to that book before I moved to Sweden.