In 2006 after living one year in Stockholm I started to work on my paradise essay. It’s my personal vision on the city and its people. I’m searching for a direct, grittier mood, an atmosphere that is different from the usual stereotype of Stockholm and Scandinavia.
Through symbolic images and the graphic language of black and white this essay became an intimate, under the skin view, that also talks for my feelings and emotion, my instant reactions of a place that is strongly related to me because of my family story. I’m born in Milan, half Swedish- half Italian, and I’m living in Stockholm since 2005.
I want it to be an artistic document from our times, in a larger perspective, about western European culture, mainly focusing on the consumeristic and capitalistic aspects.
Paradise stands for the illusion of this system.
Analogue is a specific process, in time and in mind. Like that I create time to feel, think and reflect after photographing many different situations. For me it has the same importance as taking and selecting pictures.
For me photography is a way to relate and connect to the reality which is unrolling in front of me, becoming a part of the moment, participating and trying to give it a personal form: a visual story that wouldn’t be here if I was not taking pictures.
Joakim Kocjancic
