Moving in,

looking out.

Here it is warm

and human.

I could stay here.

(JH Engström)

After receiving carte blanche from French publisher Pierre Bessard, Swedish photographer JH Engström decided to photograph the early years in his new home in Montreuil (near Paris) after leaving his native Sweden.

Leafing through the book, the reader is struck by the seriousness of Engström's unpretentious approach. The photographs, all taken no more than 500 meters from his Montreuil studio, mostly show his neighbors and the people he met on the street, in bars, up close or far away, with their eyes closed or seemingly unaware of the artist's presence; increasingly revealing his desire to bridge an invisible gap between himself and his subjects through his gaze, photography or other forms of conversation.

With his many photographs of passersby taken from the window of his studio or from his porch and the palpable curiosity, empathy and interest the artist shows, they almost seem to predict the pandemic era and subsequent lockdown.