The Frame by JH Engstrom

Since I started photographing 30 years ago I have photographed men. During all these years I have also repeatedly photographed transgender persons. Another recurring motif during these 30 years are self-portraits. My own thousands of contact sheets show me a lifelong, both conscious and subconscious, search linked to identity and the constant changeability and transience connected to the human condition. In addition to these images, the book starts and ends with photographs of moraine rocks. These rocks were pushed forward by the ice sheet. When the ice melted 10.000 years ago they stopped where they are now to be found. The expanded self-portrait and the mirroring in others is a way to approach the historical renegotiation that is now taking place regarding the idea of the male.

The Frame is JH Engström´s extended self-portrait, a search towards and an escape from the idea of father, a meditation on the meaning of the male gender.

In times when society is starting to do a much needed and urgent re-examination of the very notions of gender, this is Engström´s personal, generous sometimes violent and desperate but always heartfelt contribution to this decisive discussion.

The book draws from Engström´s large archive of photographs and combines these portraits with Ice age immutable rocks to remind us to always look for our own anima.