Excerpt from the exhibition text for Blicka
Umeå Konsthall (2022)
For Peter, it is more about a combination of romanticisms depicting of the sublime and the more concrete study of light and landscape found in en plein air painting, giving the images a completely different expression and tone. The figure standing alone in the picture gazing out is not standing in a enveloping forest, but in an open rocky coastal landscape, where the sky and the looming horizon creates air and space. Every image in the suite Forecast Diaries is accompanied by an excerpt from the marine and coastal weather forecast, which is broadcast every day on Sveriges Radio. The factual listing of locations at sea along Sweden’s long coastline – along with the meteorological observations and prognoses – becomes a pragmatic poetry that seeps into the images:
In the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea intermittent rain or showers with moderate to reduced visibility. Otherwise mostly clear visibility. Gale warning issued for Skagerrak, the south and southeast Baltic Sea, and the Gulf of Finland. Forecast for tomorrow morning. Skagerrak, Kattegatt western wind circa 8–13 meters per second, on eastern Skagerrak up to gale 15. Somewhat declining winds during the night.
In the meeting between the image summoned by the title and the photograph itself, something bigger than the sum of the two parts emerges. Interestingly, this expansion happens between.
Niclas Östlind
Professor of Photography at HDK-Valand