Martin Bogren's photography takes the form of personal and poetic writing that asserts itself throughout his work. He is the author of several books including Ocean, 2008, Lowlands, 2011, Tractor Boys, 2013, Italia, 2016 and August Song, 2019. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Europe and he is represented in the collections of important museums: Moderna Museet Stockholm, Oregon Fine Art Museum, Modern Art Museum Rome and Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. For his book Hollow he won the price for the Best Swedish Photobook. Martin Bogren holds a lifetime grant from the Swedish Author's Fund.
"For Martin Bogren, called 'a master of the everyday sublime' by Sean O'Hagan, photography is a way to understand one's place in the world. The camera could be key or shield, depending on the mood of the artist. Bogren's photographs may be described as poetic, cinematic, evocative, romantic or mysterious, yet they also elude any such qualification. Initially influenced by Anders Petersen, whose work in a 'personal documentary style' is marked by intimacy in highly-contrasted black-and-white photographs, Bogren's work has become softer and more subtle, gently grained and often out-of-focus like any good Julia Cameron or Alfred Stieglitz. It was Petersen who once told Bogren that he was 'too good a photographer', and that he better forget about his identity.
Bogren's work seems to breathe analog photography, yet he inserts digital steps in between the original film and the resulting gelatin silver prints. The interaction between the analog and the digital is something he's learned from musicians, one of whom said that he 'could've never sound as analog without the help of the computer'. Music is where it began for Bogren, who in the 1990s toured with bands as a music photographer, most extensively with The Cardigans, which resulted in a book in 1997. For two upcoming books Bogren is experimenting with inserting color photographs in between his monochromatic work, in fading colors seemingly hesitating about wanting to become color."
Taco Hidde Bakker (writer and curator)