Location: Landskrona Foto, Tyghuset Opening hours: Thursday-Sunday 12-17
The people depicted in John Alinder’s portraits are often looking straight into the camera. As if they can see us. As if their gaze can travel the hundred years or so that lie between their time and ours. As if they were saying, “You are alive now, but we were once alive.”
The photographer John Alinder was born in Sävasta in Altuna parish on 22 December 1878. He was a farmer’s son who remained true to the village as long as he lived, but in his behaviour he was a rebel. He was expected to take over his parents’ farm but refused. That was no small matter at the time. Instead, Alinder devoted himself to odd jobs, especially photography. For over thirty years he depicted the locality and the people who lived there.
And look at the way he did it, wayward, warm, alive. The people he portrayed have names like Agnes, Lily or Jarl, and they come from places like Berga, Mälby and Flosta. They are children placed on chairs, people perched in trees, they are workers, confirmation candidates and old ladies; often depicted against a background of foliage and sprawling greenery penetrated by sunlight. Alinder’s portrait art allows for the magic of chance, both liberating and defining the subjects.
Ever since the staff of Landskrona Foto first saw Alinder’s pictures, they have been working for a solo exhibition of these, and this summer it will finally happen. From 19 June you can meet people from another time, in Landskrona, via Alinder’s gaze and his camera.
The John Alinder exhibition is produced in collaboration with Upplandsmuseet.
John Alinder / Upplandsmuseet 
John Alinder / Upplandsmuseet
