Synopsis
When Swedish photographer JH Engström films his compatriot Anders Petersen (who was also his teacher and whose assistant and friend he became), he's doing much more than making a portrait or a documentary about a photographer. Both are steeped in the same humanity, which informs their photographic approach. It's a desire to render as crudely as possible the "essence" of the human being, with all its chaos and complexity. They photograph a world on the margins which they themselves inhabit; they fit into their images; they expose themselves, literally and figuratively. In so doing, they abolish the distance between themselves, their subjects, and those who view their work.
This film, then, is also a work of sincere research, in which both expose themselves, engage in dialogue, drink together, and treat despair with glee. A "Nordic" aesthetic emerges, a blend of rigour and abandon, distance and absolute vulnerability. Between cold and heat, the lens fogs up, and the reflection on friendship, on the human being, becomes a manifesto for photography that goes "right to the bone", the whole shot through with a poetry that disarms.
What you will find in this film
A friendship - A photographer's eye on another photographer - Ander Petersen's quest - A manifesto - A Nordic aesthetic - A raw but poetic work
Further exploration
The Darkroom Rumour
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