Johan Willner Livres

Wind Upon the Face of Waters deals with the great questions of religion and faith, from a perspective to be brought up in a modern, political and strongly secular society, during the seventies and eighties.It is a personal story that also reflects on the photographic method, Johan Willner combines the black and white photographs with an integrated essay in which the two parts follow each other and work both independently and jointly in the photographic and textual narrative. A combination that contributes to an extension of the experience of the photograph.In 2015 Wind Upon the Face of Waters was awarded Best Portfolio at Landskrona Photo Festival, Sweden (August 2016) and the winner of the Spine International Dummy Award.

Johan Willner (*1971 in Stockholm) makes it difficult to tell to what degree his black-and-white and color photographs are renditions of real or staged events. Inspired by music, literature, and philosophy, the artist discovers mysterious motifs in front of the backdrops provided by nature or the city, beaches or hospitals. This publication presents the series Boy Stories, which is based on images from his own memory and which Willner has been pursuing since 2006—not to reconstruct the details of past events but with the intention of creating a universally valid manifestation of existential questions. The slightly faded colors, often in complimentary hues of green and red on a lighter background, lend the photographs a fascinating aesthetic that belies their dramatic depths while at the same time creating an interesting contrast to the subjects, such as the fragility of the child within the man. Exhibition schedule: Fotografiska, Stockholm, October 4–November 18, 2012