The Swedish Photobook Award was established in 1996 by the Photographic Authors within the Swedish Photographers’ Association with the aim of promoting Swedish photobook publishing. The winner receives a grant of 40,000 SEK, while the other nominees receive 10,000 SEK each. The winner of the newly introduced Lilla Fotobokspriset (Small Photobook Award) receives 20,000 SEK.
The Swedish Photobook Award 2024 has been awarded to Things Change Anyway by the non-binary trans* artist and photographer MC Coble and art historian Louise Wolthers. The winning book is a dynamic montage across time and space – a demonstration in queer time, presented as a diary without chronology or hierarchy. 2024 also marks the first year of the newly established Lilla Fotobokspriset, which was awarded to Olle Essvik’s photobook Vindstädningen.
Things Change Anyway and Vindstädningen were named winners of the Swedish Photobook Award 2024 and Lilla Fotobokspriset, respectively, at the photobook gala at Bio Rio in Stockholm on the evening of Wednesday, March 20.
Jury’s Statement for the Winner of the Swedish Photobook Award 2024, Things Change Anyway
The work manifests the embrace of a state in constant flux, in a symbiotic process that twists and turns the queer. The political seamlessly meets the personal, where the most vulnerable is cross-fertilized with the generally existential. This duality is also reflected in the book’s form, with an innovative structure combining graphic illustration and text, all imbued with a burning desire for liberation. The reading experience becomes an intimate encounter that shows how we can become braver together.
Things Change Anyway is a blend of the winning pair’s shared images from over a decade, presented alongside MC Coble’s intense drawings and five essays by Louise Wolthers. Here, the exploration of how change, queer kinship, and non-human connections can appear is reflected. All of this is presented in a non-linear diary, a constellation of moments in life occurring here and now. The subjects revolve around their own relationship, family, friends, and nature. It also addresses change, gender-affirming transition, and the challenges of menopause.
“Louise and I went through various bodily changes while our relationship, work, and life were ongoing. But there was no clear before and after in the process, something we carried into the book by avoiding a clear narrative. To fully grasp it from all perspectives, it needs to be turned, twisted, and experienced from different angles,” says MC Coble.
Nominees for the 2024 Swedish Photobook Award:
- Thomas Wågström, Case Closed (wagstrombooks). Designer: Thomas Wågström. Writers: Karl Ove Knausgård, Niclas Östlind.
- Elina Birkehag, D FOR DAUGHTER (Spector Books). Designer: Laslo Long. Writers: Amelia Groom, M. Ty, Quinn Latimer, Meg Miller, Jungmyung Lee, Matilda Kenttä, Linnea Rutz, Jennie Tiderman-Österberg.
- Kjell-Åke Andersson, Kära Aspudden (Stockholmia). Designer: Anton Hull. Editor: Bo Larsson.
- Jenny Lindhe, Tingen (Breadfield Press). Designer: Fia Djerf. Writers: Jenny Lindhe, Cecilia Lindhe.
- MC Coble and Louise Wolthers, Things Change Anyway (Breadfield Press / forlaget *). Designers: MC Coble & Louise Wolthers. Essays: Louise Wolthers. Drawings: MC Coble.
Lilla Fotobokspriset
Olle Essvik is the first recipient of Lilla Fotobokspriset, a newly established category within the Swedish Photobook Award. Lilla Fotobokspriset was created to recognize the rich diversity of photographic literature often published in smaller editions.
Jury’s Statement for the Winner of Lilla Fotobokspriset 2024, Vindstädningen
An ostensibly modest archive of memories takes shape in a work where materials and visual storytelling are interwoven with both humor and seriousness. Old artifacts and debris bring to life a family mythology where the recycled permeates both content and form.
Olle Essvik is an artist and photographer and lectures at HDK-Valand, including on the subject of artists’ books. In his book project, Vindstädningen (rojal förlag), the materials, memories, and artifacts from an attic storage space form both the content and the design. In the attic, which had not been cleaned out in over 20 years, Olle Essvik was fascinated by his discoveries and the memories they evoked. The storage held items that had been discarded or belonged to another time, completely hidden away and forgotten—objects that became the key to a memory. Vindstädningen is published in hand-bound copies with variations in the edition, where even the covers differ.
This year’s winners and nominees were selected by a jury consisting of:
- Dawid (Björn Dawidsson), photographer and artist
- Stefan Bladh, photographer and filmmaker
- Sara Meidell, cultural journalist and author
- Sepidar Hosseini, multidisciplinary art director, graphic designer, and visual artist
- Maja Daniels, photography-based artist, filmmaker.
For more information, contact:
Fotoförfattarna, Swedish Photographers’ Association, sff@sfoto.se, https://www.sfoto.se/fotoforfattarna/svenska-fotobokspriset