JH Engstrm: Tout va Bien

(Hardback)

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Description

Swedish artist JH Engstrom is an inveterate bookmaker. Most recently, his published works have explored ideas of place and home, including Sketch of Paris (Aperture, 2013), La Residence (2010), From Back Home (2009), and CDG/JHE (2008). After more than a decade of such thematic projects, Tout Va Bien returns to the looser, more associative approach of Engstrom's critically acclaimed volume Trying to Dance (2003). The source for these photographs is nevertheless strongly autobiographical, as well as vividly metaphorical; a re-emphasis of the artist's belief in photography's potential as visual poetry. The sequencing is highly charged with contrasts: black-and-white images mix with color; the gentle beauty of coastal rocks clashes with a flash-lit image of the bright, blood-red placentas from the birth of his twins. The book leaves it to the viewer to map his or her own network of meaning from image to image, page to page. Tout Va Bien is designed and produced by Patric Leo, who also collaborated with the artist on Trying to Dance.

Author Bio

JH Engstrm spent the early portion of his life and photography career between Sweden and France. After assisting Mario Testino in Paris and Anders Petersen in Stockholm, he received his formal education from Gothenburg University in Gothenburg, Sweden, graduating in 1997. Engstrm has produced several photobooks, including Trying to Dance (2004), Haunts (2006), CDG/JHE (2008), From Back Home (with Anders Petersen, 2009) and La Rsidence (2009). Engstrm is the recipient of grants from such institutes as the Swedish Art Council, the Swedish Authors Foundation, and the Hasselblad Center. In 2005, he was shortlisted for the Deutsche Brse Photography Prize for his book Trying to Dance. He is represented by Galerie VU, Paris, and by GUN Gallery, Stockholm.