MIKAEL OLSSON - OLSSON MIKAEL

If portraiture can be categorised as a social encounter, the self-portrait is a perceptual encounter with one’s own body, and all the physical constraints that such an act entails. The physiological impossibility of seeing oneself has fascinated artists for centuries and inspired great works that play with these limitations. The self-portraits of Mikael Olsson – which are actually demi-self-portraits, as they only capture the top of his head and his bespectacled eyes – are a brilliant entry into the mirror halls of art history.
Sinziana Ravini

To gain the trust needed to fulfill his artistic vision, Mikael Olsson uses methods from the tradition of classical documentary photography – such as getting access to spaces and objects through other assignments. As stated by Olsson: “I’m an artist, I use myself to get into new situations”.

Olsson’s self-portraits/selfies (since 2007) challenge the narcissistic use of selfies as well as the status of influencers. Further he destabilizes the composition of a traditional selfie where the eye line is recommended to be one-third down from the top frame. Through tireless play and intuition, Olsson’s images are marked by both intimacy and distance, the role of his own physical presence and the perceptive relationship to the surroundings.

Olsson Mikael includes an essay by writer and psychoanalyst Sinziana Ravini.

Photography: Mikael Olsson
Text: Sinziana Ravini
Translation: Christine Antaya
Copy-editing: Mikael Andersson
Design: Malin Augustsson and Mikael Olsson 2022
English, hardcover
64 pages, 21 x 15 cm
ISBN: 9789198672022

Edition of 1000 copies.

Thank you HCV/Hasselblad Centers Vänner for generous support

Publishing date: April 5, 2022

Art and Theory