Svärta (Yngve Baum, Jean Hermanson, Odd Uhrbom)

Norrbotten’s museum presents: Svärta: Swedish photographers in heavy industry 1968–74. In the same country, at the same time, the three gazes of Yngve Baum, Jean Hermanson and Odd Uhrbom, were directed at the same social reality, that of work in mines, shipyards and heavy engineering industry. Their observation, which seems to obey the rules of classical theatre, records a moment that combines in a rich dialogue the history of societies and that of photography. It is essentially in black and white that the sixties and seventies wrote a stage of what was not yet called documentary photography, but which transcended the conventions of photo journalism in order to deal with “background subjects”.

Without working in concert, these investigative photographers, who bear witness as much as they implicitly denounce, have all achieved portraits, close-up studies, of these workers they came to see, by whom they were accepted, whose arduous daily toil they displayed. In doing so they gave the faces an individuality, and granted a unique identity to each of these workers who, quite often, were only considered as a group, as a “workforce”. Half a century later, these faces, these gazes, continue to question us.

Besides the collection of photographs, the exhibition also includes archive material and correspondence related to the great miners’ strike in 1969 that started in Leveäniemi mine in the village of Svappavaara. The strike spread like wild fire. On the Friday, 4,800 miners were on strike – in Svappavaara, Kiruna and Malmberget. Support was almost total. And it all took place outside the trade union. It was a wildcat strike, a rarity in Sweden where consensus on the labour market was the rule. And it would last for three months. The book Mine by Odd Uhrbom and Sara Lidman helped to instill courage in the striking miners. (Today the book is even considered to have been a triggering factor.) Telegrams with congratulations pouring in from virtually the whole world also helped.

Yngve Baum (1945–2016), Jean Hermanson (1938–2012) and Odd Uhrbom (f. 1941).

In collaboration with Norrbotten’s museum.

The exhibition is produced by Landskrona Foto with curator Christian Caujolle. It was previously on view at Arbetets museum i Norrköping and Norrbottens museum in Luleå.

Photo: Yngve Baum

Work

Svärta: Swedish photographers in heavy industry 1968~74

Location

Välkommaskolan, Malmberget
21.11–14.2