Three photographers with different conditions for monitoring conflict areas share insights from their own work. How are opportunities created in order to work in the way they want, and how do limitations shape the images we see from places like Ukraine and Gaza? Some of Sweden’s most renowned photojournalists make comparisons from the field and share their experiences.
Johan Malmberg. Culture editor at Helsingborgs Dagblad and a longtime critic and writer, especially focusing on film and photography. I have a particular interest in photojournalism and how its perception in Swedish daily press has shifted over time. In 2017, I established the Helsingborgs Dagblad Photography Prize, which may be a modest gesture in the periphery, but still a defense of photojournalism and the visibility of images in newspapers. The very first prize was awarded to Nora Lorek, followed by Alexander Mahmoud, Johannes Samuelsson, Kicki Lundgren, Troy Enekvist, Ikram Abdulkadir, and Nils Petter Löfstedt.
Initially, the photography prize winners were exhibited here at the Landskrona Photo Festival, but now this takes place annually at Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg. During the exhibition period, I also organize various discussions about photography and photojournalism, as will be the case when this year’s exhibition opens in November.
Over the past decade, I have also devoted a great deal of time to produce exhibitions (art and photography) in the name of the newspaper. It started here at the festival in 2015 as the organizer of a photo salon, and continued the following year with the exhibition “It’s so hard to live without you” (featuring Priscilla Briggs, Victoria Crayon, and Karolina Jonderko).
It’s not entirely easy to find time for all of this within my role as culture editor at Helsingborgs Dagblad, but photography is clearly very close to my heart.
Kent Klich is a visual artist and educator working within the fields of photography and film, slow journalism, and collaborative methodologies of image-making and representation. He focuses on the interconnection between disciplines; an image never stands alone but links with language, objects, sounds, and documents. His work narrates the social and political realities that we inhabit in their complexities by questioning and creating a multiplicity of entry points into unresolved issues, giving room to critical reflection as much as a space for emotional engagement. Areas of work; Sweden, Denmark, Mexico, Romania, Palestine/Israel and Russia. He has made five books on Gaza, the latest one GZA On Land and Air, Dogwalk books, 2024, a cooperation between Muhammad Shehada, Hind Khoudary and Tina Enghoff.
Nora Lorek (b.1992 in Germany) is a documentary photographer based in Gothenburg. In her storytelling, she focuses on forced migration, culture and human rights. In her long-term work, she chooses shape and expression based on the projects and in collaboration with the people affected by them. She often shares everyday life with the people whose lives she documents, and works with advocacy work that gives the audience the opportunity to contribute to change.
The photographer is represented by Panos Pictures and works for several international clients such as National Geographic, Der Spiegel, New York Times among others. She runs the Milaya Project, a non-profit organization in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement that works with fifty women who now make a living from their embroidery craft and export their art all over the world.
Nora Lorek has been awarded with several international awards and exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Landskrona Museum and Galleri Kontrast in Stockholm.
Paul Hansen is a photojournalist based in Stockholm. As a staff photographer for the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter his work takes him all over the world – as well as just around the corner. His visual storytelling has, among many domestic and international prizes and honors, also awarded him “Picture of the year” twice and “Photographer of the Year” in Sweden nine times. He has been nominated for the Swedish “Pulitzer Prize” twice. He was also awarded “Photographer of the year Newspaper” in POYi 2010 and 2013. He won the “World Press Photo, 2012”, a second place in “Photographer of the year” in POYi 2015 and a second place in “General News” by World Press Photo 2016. In 2017 and 2018 he had two major exhibitions at the Fotografiska museum in Stockholm. In 2024 he was, among other prizes, awarded: Second place in “Photographer of the Year in NPPA”. Award of Excellence in “Photographer of the Year” in POYi. Award of Excellence in POYi 2024