Lars Tunbjörk

The exhibition presents previously unpublished photos from Tunbjörk's archive side by side with all the photographs from Country Beside Itself from 1993, which is today regarded as one of the most influential Swedish photography projects of modern times. With a rare look for the absurdity of everyday life, colorful compositions and with melancholic humor, Tunbjörk captured a Sweden in flux — a country that slowly lost the contours of folk home as a new consumer society emerged. The images of shopping malls, office landscapes, campsites and fairgrounds changed the photographic contemporary era. His particular way of looking at his surroundings became an international success and became so powerful that one spoke of images such as “tunbjörkare”.

Lars Tunbjörk (1956-2015) began his career as a press photographer at Borås Tidning. In the 1990s, the big breakthrough came both in Sweden and internationally with the series of pictures Country Beside Itself. He appeared regularly in international journals such as The New York Times Magazine, Libération, GEO and Le Monde, while undertaking personal projects, books and exhibitions worldwide. The book Country Beside Itself was quickly sold out and has since been a collector's item. In conjunction with the exhibition, the publisher Arena is now releasing it in a revised edition. Author Göran Greider has added a new text that is also included in the exhibition.

Curator: Maria Patomella. The exhibition is produced by Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in collaboration with Maud Nycander, the Lars Tunbjörk Foundation and the Tore G. Wärenstam Foundation. Thanks to Borås Stadsarkiv.

^{Photos:
Skara Sommarland, 1991
Skara Sommarland, 1990
London, 1983
Ullared, I love Borås
Öland, 1991}