Overview:

From a vast and multi layered material I was asked to select five photographers. It turned out to be a very difficult task, and it was impossible to be satisfied with less than six. The material, comprising of around 100 young artists educated in the UK, was of incredible quality and featured a broad and generous spectrum of the contemporary: from the performative to the documentary, from hi-tech to pinhole cameras, from the explicitly political to sophisticated formalistic experiments. And much more. An immediate response was that traditional genres such as landscape, portraits, still lives, photo journalism etc suddenly felt inaccurate and difficult to use. The limitations become obvious when meeting the individual artists, who make a resistance towards classifications, borders and expected patterns that one wouldn't thought was possible. The artists are asking questions about our time and our societies. We have to look for the answers elsewhere. The Swedish poet Camilla Hammarström writes somewhere: 'You are entering a room filled with light. Forget all rules.'

Lucy Dunn

University of Brighton

A breathing, burning and cool now/here, the distance between us. The slowness of moments.

Özant Kamaci

Central Saint Martins

The unexpected meeting of surrealism, sharp and shocking at the same time.

Clare Lymer

Camberwell College of Arts

The architecture of light. Knowledge acquired and disclosed.

Mark McCullough

Central Saint Martins

To find the perfect image and then leave it behind, to show all tricks.

Felly Mistweave

University College Falmouth

Works close to cinematic narration. The feeling of catastrophe and being saved.

Joshua Pollen

Camberwell College of Arts

The images as evidence. The core of photography, its' alchemy and conditions.

About the Selector:

Johan Sjöström (b 1975) is the curator of exhibitions at Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden. The museum is one of the most important institutions for art in Scandinavia and the collections and the temporary exhibitions have a broad range; from Renaissance to contemporary art, photography and new media. In addition to curating more than 30 museum shows at venues such as BildMuseet, Göteborgs Konsthall and Gothenburg Museum of Art, Mr. Sjöström has been invited to curate exhibitions, review and lecture at numerous international photo events including Rencontres d'Arles in France; FotoFest in Houston, USA; FotoFest in Beijing, China; Rhubarb-Rhubarb in Birmingham, UK; FotoBild in Berlin, Germany; Artphoto Image Festival in Bucharest, Romania; Bratislava Month of Photography in Slovakia; and Skábmagovat in Inari, Finland.