Hello! Please introduce yourself.
I’m Per Cromwell. I build stuff. Sometimes in Sweden, more often
elsewhere. I always bring my camera.
Your photography subjects range from people to places to
nature. Out of the three, which do you feel most attracted to?
I’m strongly influenced by my father’s work as a landscape
photographer. He often worked in the context of dark forests,
murky rivers and foreboding mountains and I followed him to
Ireland, Denmark and the UK documenting landscapes. I guess
it is just natural that I take after his approach and find attraction
in this genre.
I don’t confine myself to just landscape photography. I also
find interest in depicting and documenting life in the city
and other urban phenomena. I like to take my time with my
subjects. And I don’t like to direct people. I rarely interact with
my subjects. People enter my photos most often by accident.
The stories I want to tell don’t need actors.
The images in your gallery are often accompanied by
personal thoughts and anecdotes as captions. Do you
find it easier to open up through Instagram than in any
other medium?
I add captions in order to turn the pictures into personal
memories or stories. I’m just as interested, or maybe more
interested, in creating these fragmented scenes of daily life.
Memories or reflections, relevant or irrelevant. The captions add
a dimension which makes my creative process more interesting.
Pure aesthetics don’t interest me.
In comic books, all the movement and action takes place
between the frames, in that white gap between the stills. This is
where the real story is told. I’d like to see my photography in the
same way; as stills. The real story takes place before or after I took
the picture. Instagram’s format makes it an effective medium to
communicate my intentions, and is a channel where you can get
away with short texts.
Photography can sometimes bring out the bolder side of
photographers. What's the most dangerous situation or
thing you did to capture a particular photo?
My work sometimes put me in potentially dangerous
situations. The camera is usually part of my work as a
designer and builder. For instance, documenting activist
work inside the country of Belarus.
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