Jens Olof Lasthein, Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz

Jens Olof Lasthein

Publisher
Kult Books
Year
2026
ISBN
978-91-990235-3-3
Specifications
Clothbound hardcover with a tipped in photograph
17.5 x 24 cm
176 pages
166 photographs
Tritone offset printing
First edition of 700 copies
Designed by Janne Riikonen

We live in times marked by authoritarianism, violence, and a disregard for human rights. The world feels divided and paralyzed, and this climate of uncertainty takes photographer Jens Olof Lasthein back to another tumultuous time. In the winter of 1991–92, Lasthein walked up and down Stockholm's main pedestrian street, Drottninggatan, photographing people. He felt uneasy as his immediate world grew increasingly unsettled. The war in Croatia was clearly about to spread to Bosnia, the true melting pot of the former Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union was dissolving and formally ceased to exist on New Year's Eve. At the same time, a man who came to be known as the "Laser Man" had begun shooting immigrants in Stockholm. With his camera's standard lens and focus fixed at one meter, Lasthein reacts quickly and intuitively—one flash exposure per person as they pass by. Some notice him, but most are so deeply lost in their own thoughts that they do not realize they are being captured on film. Everyone has their own story, their own small world, yet everyone threads their way through the crowd.

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