Photographer, Theo Elias shares his work Smoke, a series spanning 2011-16 and exploring ideas of Identity and freedom through his emotive black and white images.
I’ve always had bad memory. At some point I realized that my life would start slipping away from me unless I documented it.
I started taking photos.
In the summer of 2011 all of my close relationships were full of conflicts. I wanted to go away somewhere; to disappear. I had the idea that I could form myself a new identity elsewhere.
I went away north, seeking the loneliness. I talked to strangers in bars and in the bright summer nights. Looking at the mountains, climbing them. Tried to find a meaning, a context. Photographing was a comfort; every time I pressed the shutter and every time I finished a roll of film, I felt the time pass. It was liberating.
Today, after many travels, years and shared cigarettes. This is a story about what no longer is, and maybe never really was. The freedom in the north.
Theo Elias (1985) is a photographer from Stockholm, Sweden. He holds a degree in Photojournalism from the Nordic School of Photography (2014). He has also worked as an assistant for Anders Petersen. His works deals with personal subjects such as as memory, truth and loss. The works has been shown in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Switzerland, Turkey and The Netherlands. The series Smoke has been shortlisted for the Kassel Dummy Award and it won the 3rd price at Gomma Grant 2018.
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