Farsta


Farsta is a project about stigma, fear and trying to stear clear from stereotypes.
I moved to Farsta 2 years ago. I`ve been living in the surrounding areas for more than 20 years.
Moving to Farsta took some convincing on my part. I`ve been reading about Farsta in the newspapers. It is always about shootings, bombings, rival gangs and stereotypes of ghetto kids (“Farsta glitter”). All of these thing happen and are real.
When moving to Farsta I was also influenced by what I`ve been reading, so I was actually scared sometimes walking home late from work.
When I get to a new town, on holiday or moving to a new area and I don`t feel safe I usually walk around at night making it my space.
In this case i also started looking what`s been published photowise about Farsta. It wasn`t much. It was a b/w book about the usual suspects (the alcoholics and the junkies) and there was some b/w books about the concrete houses.
I quickly realised that for me to be able to live in Farsta I needed it to be my Ghetto as well. My safe space, so I started looking for for people to take pictures of.
When I work I always have a conversation about life in genereal with the person before taking pictures. In this case I gained personal knowledge and wamth from the people I portayed.
For months now I have been taking “Naked” portaits of people here. I want to show them no different than any other small town in Sweden. Saying you live in Farsta is always attached with a stigma like no other places in Sweden. Porples pre-concived notions is all about fear and shootings. Just the way I felt moving here.
So the portaits are suppose to be “naked”. No special lighting that might corrupt the image. I have also spent hours photographing just the samll town that Farsta is. Surreal images, everyday life, architectural images and so forth.
Just like you would do in any other small community.
Some of the people I portay have difficult lives, some middle class, some working class. I don`t want to tell their stories. I want their portaits to tell the story of a human being. No different from you and me.