A Fotografiska tour in Stockholm

Visiting the photography museum Fotografiska was one of the safer things to do in Stockholm while the pandemic. I got this idea from my godmother who had seen an article in Finland about one of the exhibitions they had. I'll tell you more about them in detail below.

I'll start by telling you that I'm not a very deep thinker when it comes to art but I do enjoy looking at things that are beautiful or give you new ideas. I appreciate learning about the history and creative processes behind the artwork - how did the artist come to take this kind of a picture? Where did they get their inspiration? How did it all start and what were some difficulties on the way? It is always great to see other people talk about something they are enthusiastic about even though it might not be in my top 10 interests on the list. This tour to Fotografiska was also part of my Namjooning-weekend, which I'll explain to you a little more at the end of this post.

What is Fotografiska?

Fotografiska is the biggest museum of photography in the world. The concept of the first Fotografiska was created in Stockholm, Sweden in 2010 and after that they have opened museums also to Estonia, New York City and Berlin. The Fotografiska in Stockholm is one of the city's most popular attractions for visitors and according to their web page the museum (at least when it is not the pandemic) hosts over 500 000 visitors annually.

There is more than just photography though. You can find a cafe, restaurant, a really interesting store filled with books and gadgets that are related to photography or the exhibitions they are currently showing. They do some workshops for people who are interested in photography as well, host events with artists and rent spaces for companies to arrange a gathering.

The exhibitions in April 2021

During the spring 2021 the museum is still open but you can only visit it by booking a time slot and buying a ticket in advance. This is Fotografiska's way of making sure that there are no huge crowds and everyone is safer. I booked a very late evening tour which was great since I mostly got to enjoy the art work on my own.

The visit started with Sarah Moon's (France) exhibitions At the Still Point and The Red Thread. The first mentioned is a collection of her work from the beginning of her career and the latter an exhibition based on a story where a young woman who marries an older aristocrat with dark secrets. This whole story line, the color scheme and theme of the exhibition reminded me of Moulin Rouge (the movie). After Sarah Moon's work you can find an exhibition of amazing and cool photos by various different artists - and the best thing is you can buy them as posters at the end of the tour if you want.

This time there was also a Finnish artist's exhibition. I was not familiar with Arno Rafael Minkkinen before, but his work was very interesting. In Two Hundred Seasons he had taken picture's of himself during the years 1970 to 2020 in various different corners of the world. First of all, the setting of the exhibition was very summery and Finnish - there were birch trees set up to guide the visitor through the exhibition and you could hear birds chirping. His photographs were like puzzles; he had blended his body to every picture in multiple interesting ways. Sometimes I was not even sure which part was showing, but that was also part of the appeal.

After the black and white, calm atmosphere of Two Hundred Seasons it was a magnificent change to step in to the colorful world of Coexistense by a young Korean artist Cho Gi-Seok. He is known for his fashion photography that he specializes in, but has also started his own fashion brand KUSIKOHC. Honestly, I personally thought his photography was very similar in ideas to the Finnish artist's work but with a very different style. Cho Gi-Seok had many photos of people dressed and masked as flowers or plants and multiple times I had to take another look just to understand where there was a person in the picture. If you want to see this exhibition, you can actually do it as a 3D tour at Fotografiska's web page here. I highly recommend it!

The last bigger photography exhibition was Meeting Sofie by Snezhana von Büdingen, a Russian artist who is living in Germany. She has taken pictures of Sofie, a 18-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, who is living in a very secluded 16th Century farm in Germany. The whole atmosphere in the exhibition was again very calm and enchanting. It was like stepping in to a fantasy tale because the farm Sofie lives in reminds you of something out of a fairytale. Also available as a 3D tour for now.

Just before leaving the exhibition space to explore the museum store I sat down and admired Garla Canni's (USA) The Garden of Emoji Delights. It is a digital art piece completely made out of emoji's. There is so many things happening that I had to stay and watch it at least a few times to be able to find all the details. It is a modern piece of artwork that brings Hieronymus' work The garden of Earthly Delights to life.

Namjooning

As I told you in the beginning, the Fotografiska-tour was part of my weekend filled with Namjooning. You probably have no idea what it is, but no worries, I'll tell you. As a fairly new but highly supportive BTS (a group of Korean musicians) fan I love this term and will most likely use it later in the blog posts as well as it has born from one of the group's member's way of living. Namjooning is defined multiple times in the urban dictionary to mean various acts of doing the things you love such as taking walks through parks, going to museums to enjoy art, admiring nature, watering plants and having fun with friends. The second most popular definition is:

Namjooning - feeding your mind and soul by doing the things you love - ktrn

Easy, catchy, simple. Love the idea behind it. Taking time to yourself to do the things you actually love. The world can be a hectic place nowadays, and I for one have noticed that I can't stay still. If I don't achieve something every day, my mind starts to fill with disappointment and doubt. Why didn't I do anything productive today? Why was I lazy? Will I ever be able to achieve my dreams? Fortunately, I am able to recognize these bad feelings and usually just try to brush past them - it is okay for me to do things that don't necessarily make me advance in my career or take me closer to fulfilling my long term goals. It is becoming clearer to me day by day that I should - in fact - just do more of the things I enjoy rather than checking a box from a bucket list. Might sound simple enough, but when your mind has different ideas on the subject, it is not easy to change.

Did it get a little deep there for a moment? No worries - I'll continue in a relaxed atmosphere by telling you more about my namjooning weekend on my next blog post. On the same weekend on an extremely sunny day I walked to Snösätra Graffiti Walls and stared at the great graffiti in wonder. More about that next time!