A portrait is much more than a mere depiction of a person. It always conveys a larger story about people, about society or the photographer behind the camera.

In this exhibition, we encounter people from all walks of life. There are those whose names we know, with the power to influence their own lives but also the lives of others. They stand next to people who will forever be anonymous and who are fighting to make it through the day. There are works that curiously try to investigate something and those that confidently state facts. Many of the portraits make visible the overlooked. Many highlight the familiar in unexpected ways. The variety of stories, perspectives and voices is partly reflected in the title – there are 202 people represented in this room – partly in the exhibition architecture with pillars that present different themes. Some examples are class, identity, and migration.

The exhibition is also based on two types of portraits; the classic, were people look straight into the camera and confront it, and images of people with their backs turned to the camera. Do we really get to know more about a person because we see their face? What details appear more clearly when we receive less visual information? The allure of facing someone’s gaze in an image – to come close and identify with someone – is contrasted with the enigmatic nature of the back images. Together with traditional portraits, an interesting exchange arises where we, as viewers, can reflect on the potentials and limitations of the photographic portrait.

The images in the exhibition are part of the Hasselblad Foundation collection, which consists of roughly 3,000 works. The collection focuses on Hasselblad Award winners and photographers who have been exhibited at the Hasselblad Center over the years.

The 36 represented photographers from the Hasselblad Foundation collection are:

Yngve Baum, Bolette Berg & Marie Høeg, Elin Berge, Edouard Boubat, Rineke Dijkstra, Tina Enghoff, Walker Evans, Bengt-Arne Falk, Maria Friberg, David Goldblatt, Hans Gedda, Denise Grünstein, Kerstin Hamilton, Charlotte Haslund-Christensen, Jean Hermansson, Graciela Iturbide, Sune Jonsson, Jens S Jensen, Stig T Karlsson, Axel Annica Karlsson Rixon, Marjaana Kella, Kent Klich, Adriana Lestido, Tuija Lindström, Mary Ellen Mark, Georg Oddner, Anders Petersen, Jorma Puranen, Sebastião Salgado, Johannes Samuelsson, August Sander, Henrik Saxgren, Malick Sidibé, Christer Strömholm and Lars Tunbjörk.

The exhibition is available for tour. For inquiries, please contact the exhibition curator Dragana Vujanovic Östlind.

Image: The pale lady in Barcelona, 1959

© Christer Strömholm Estate