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Gunnar Smoliansky has never been attracted to the spectacular. No travel to exotic destinations, no ambition to capture the historical moment or record nature’s most impressive views. Instead, we find his subjects to be modest reflections of the absolute proximity of daily life.

As in his early series entitled “Children,” taken during the years 1955-1965 in the Södermalm district of Stockholm. In this, he portrays boys and girls he encountered during evening walks at the end of the working day. Lonely children who stop for a moment, turning their gaze towards the camera, serious and inquisitive.

“It was in those blue hours, when everything seemed rather strange and the people I met were also a little strange in a way. It was that time of day when there was a smell of fried pork in the yards and the children would go in and eat.”

Carefully, Smoliansky captures the meeting with an inquisitiveness at some distance. See something, take a few exposures and move on, being careful not to disturb.

There is also the “At home” series from the end of the 1970s, with the large-format camera aimed at the everyday items in the parental home. The subjects are captured from arm’s length, with the silence of the rooms and the inherent secrets of the items being presented one by one. In their simple forms, a water glass and a fly in a window niche, a couple of pillows in a bed, dried twigs in a milk bottle, all become meditative reflections of time circulating between life and death. The insignificant and familiar acquire new meaning here, whereby the magic of the object creates a world of its own. As if Smoliansky wants to say, here are things that lend meaning to existence.

As a young man, in 1952, Smoliansky worked as a night watchman at the general goods quay in the port of Stockholm. He bought a Rollieflex from a seaman and started to take photographs. As a 19-year-old, an approach emerges, in form and content, which has accompanied him ever since. Early morning light, a man in a hat and overcoat waiting for the ferry to arrive. A boy running upstairs with a basket under his arm. Railway track, steps, light and shadows. Images without a story. Smoliansky sees something, picks up his camera and takes a photograph.


Exhibitions
One-man exhibitions (Selected)

2004 Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm.
2004 Eyubi, Stockholm.
2003-2004 Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm.
2003 Örebro konsthall, Örebro.
2002 The Life Gallery, Stockholm.
2002 Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm.
1994 Malmö Konsthall, Malmö.
1990 Centre Culturel Suédois, Paris.
1989 Lunds Konsthall, Lund.
1987 Lido, Stockholm.
1986 Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
1985 Bar Bar, Stockholm.
1984 Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Åbo, Finland.
1983 Hippolyte Galleri, Helsinki, Finland.
1982 Malmö Konsthall, Malmö.
1982 Moderna Museet, Stockholm.





Books
Publications (Selected)

Barn, 1982 : Dog Publishing, Stockholm.
Waldemarsudde, 1992: Hans Henrik Brummer, Gertrud Sandqvist, Prins Eugen Waldemarsudde, Stockholm.
Gunnar Smolianskys fotografier från Slussen i Stockholm 1952, 2002: Carl-Johan Malmberg, Byggförlaget Kultur, Stockholm.
Tre små negerpojkar, 2002: Lars Forsberg, Eget förlag, Stockholm .
Waldemarsudde,2004: Hans Henrik Brummer, Stockholm.
One Picture at a Time, 2009: Stiedl