FAR TOO CLOSE — GRUNDEMARK NILSSON GALLERY (2010)
There are hours during the day when everything is wrapped in grey. The light is soft, shapes are slightly out of focus and colours are faded. The photographs of Martina Hoogland Ivanow are like visual poetry, now and then keeping hold of a strophe – captured in shadows and fog.
“To me, says Martina Hoogland Ivanow, photography means to work with the unconscious, with the technique but also with reality. I want to create a room for the viewer and I rather want to do the questions instead of the answers.“
In Far too Close Hoogland Ivanow connects pictures of her family in Sweden with barren isolated landscapes. In her photographs the outskirts become the centre of attention. During 2002 – 2007 she has travelled to remote places like the Antarctic, the Kola Peninsula and Tierra del Fuego to find the right mood for her pictures. But its not a documentary sight, the landscapes seem to flow together and the people are wrapped by shadows. Seeming to be far and close at the same time. Martina Hoogland Ivanow pictures are hypnotic poetry.