Traces Get Signs

Gunnar Smoliansky

Gunnar Smoliansky

Gunnar Smoliansky, 83, is one of the most important Swedish photographers of the post-war era. His artistic work, comprised of analogue black-and-white photography from nearly sixty years, ranges from portraits, landscapes and still lifes to conceptual works that visually explore the medium. After several years as an industrial photographer and a brief workshop with Christer Strömholm, he increasingly dedicated himself to his free work, which was shown in several museum exhibitions. His monograph, published in 2007 by Steidl, has been out of print for years. The images of Traces Get Signs presented in our exhibition and accompanying publication are mainly from the years 2012 to 2014 and have never been shown or published before. Yet they seamlessly connect to the earlier works, in which he records ‘signs’ and ‘traces’ that ‘mark’ his world on his wanderings through his surroundings – and give us insight into his very personal way of seeing.