Olle Ljungström 2014. Photo: Michael Winnerholt

From Olle Ljungström’s camera

Stockholm Music & Arts

29.7 2016 – 31.7 2016

Stockholm

At the Stockholm Music & Arts festival, we will be featuring the slide show “Ur Olles kamera” (“From Olle’s Camera”), in memory of Olle Ljungström (1961–2016).

The camera provided the musician Olle Ljungström with a new tool for self-expression towards the end of his life. Olle Ljungström’s method, however, did not involve controlling aperture, shutter speed and colour balance. His photographic art was more random. It was when he came across a Chinese medium format camera which uses traditional film that he discovered this means of expressing himself. The camera was far from technically perfect, but Olle Ljungström appreciated it; “A simple thingamajig”, he called it.

Olle had to wind the film forward manually after each exposure. Sometimes he chose not to do so, or perhaps forgot, giving rise to the double exposures that came to signify his style.

Olle Ljungström alternated between black-and-white film and colour film, and sometimes he even used film that was past it’s use by date. He liked to be surprised by the end result. His pictures are out of focus but essentially clear in what he wanted to convey – just like his music.