The Exposed Eye

Three Years of Childhood...

Howling & Humans

In waiting for what is to come

A sunrise Drive-by

Semester/Vacation

Sunshine & Shadow

Stories for an 87 year old lady

Artist Statement

Memories from a stranger

A demonstration of a sign of the horns

CV / Contact

Valentines day and other scenes

The looking glas photos

Instagram / News

The Society

A book about a picture

THE EXPOSED EYE (2024)

The Exposed Eye #1 is a book published in 2024 that contains 18 assignment carried out by Helga Härenstam and Anna Strand. The last assignment in the book goes to the reader. The contributions received will form part of a second publication to be published by Sailor Press in the autumn of 2025.
The Exposed Eye will also be presented as an exhibition at Alingsås konsthall in the spring of 2025.

168 pages
240 x 170 mm
edition 600 in swedish / 300 in english
text: swedish / english

To buy a copy: Sailor Press

The following letter is the introductory text of the book:

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Det blottade ögat #2 (The Exposed Eye #2)

216 pages
offset print, colour, black and white
swiss binding, open spine
240 x 170 mm
edition 550
text: swedish and english (a mix)

2025
To buy a copy: rojal

A sequel to The Exposed Eye #1, in which Anna Strand and Helga Härenstam gave each other assignments (Do something about …) that were answered in words and images. The final assignment went to the readers: Do something about The End. For The Exposed Eye #2, 48 responses has been selected and tucked in with a foreword and an afterword.

Contributors:
Alice Hedström, Andy Allen-Olivar, Anna Nordström, Anna Nygren, Barthélémy Garcia, Bengt-Göran Nilsson, Björn Larsson, Carla Lomakka, Christian Kajanus, Christine Andreasson, Christofer Bocker, Elias Björn, Erika Larsson, Eva-Teréz Gölin, Freja Andersson, Freja Arvidsson, Fungi Phuong Tran Minh, Futuro Berg Fredes, Göran Kolbäck, Hendrik Zeitler, Jenny Lindhe, Jenny Rova, Johanna Wallin, Johannes Samuelsson, Josef Kovac, Karin Strand, Kristoffer Granath, Lena Nilsson, Lojs Qvarfordt, Louise Wolthers & MC Coble, Lotta Törnroth, Maie Wisur, Marit Kapla, Martin Jurander, Martin Magntorn, Mathilda Frykberg, Mette Hartung Kirkegaard, Mirjam Lamut, Pelle Kronestedt, Peter Frodin, Pia-Paulina Guilmoth, Rikke Mádi, Sara Lubich, Simon Blanck, Sixten Främberg, Tina Umer, Viveka Enander, Zooey Jolivet.

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Det blottade ögat (The Exposed Eye), Alingsås Konsthall, 2025.

The exhibition The Exposed Eye (Alingsås Konsthall, 2025) featured 18 assignments carried out in correspondence between us (Anna Strand and Helga Härenstam) through image, text, and installation. We started with a man who was called Raftworks Abrahamsson and ­moved around after that in realities and escapisms, among children, X-rays, deserted houses, archives, sorrows, photo labs, sadists, harbor towns, slaughterhouses, amusement parks, dreams, coffins, and cyclopes. We impacted life and were impacted by life. We traveled to Vindeln, to Paris, to Helsinki, and in time. We mixed together and were mixed together.
Out of an unwillingness to end, a final assignment was given to the visitors. Their responses were presented as an exhibition within the exhibition, in the latter half of the exhibition period.

Installations views.

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THREE YEARS OF CHILDHOOD DURING THE ERA OF EXTINCTION (2024)

I found myself in an attic. In front of me was a bed with a smile made up of many small deaths. A smiley of flies. I photographed it. Imagined that I was someone or something looking back at an era when there were still people and childhoods. This someone/something was just drifting around looking for dandelions, photographs and other things. Not to investigate whether a civilization could be recreated, but more because there was nothing else to do. The fires had burned, the ice had melted, small and large species had died out. Then I left the wind and the smiley for the next visitor to discover.

A handmade book in an edition of 70 copies. The book consists of 34 color photographs, including: an arm/swan swimming in the dark, a girl behind a gate, a wall with the name HELEN written on it, a shadow with two heads, a cemetery with a lost mitten, and a boy resting in tall grass.

Helga Härenstam
Rojal 2024.
ISBN: 978-91-984928-9-7

To buy a copy: rojal

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HOWLING & HUMANS (2021)

Some time ago, I came across, a book titled The Seasons, written in the 18th century by James Thomsom. The texts in this book were created by translating, deleting, adding, combining words and writing new ones, inspired by the poems I found.  I started photographing inspired by these texts, and looked for connections between the words, and things I saw, in my time, in my life.  I cruised between the fall of kings and gods, roaring floods, a beauty that may be stupid in the heart, drowning people, an I, a we, a conversation with a you, the memory of a first derailment, the small life going on, and the big one, the apocalypse, a rattling eye that hold what you look at in the threads, a howling child, and a song.

The book is available in an edition of 270 copies

The project was carried out with support from the Swedish Arts Grants committee.

+ 30 in a (Playing) limited edition
Music by Justin Dean Thomas.

To buy a copy: Journal

Review, Photobookjournal

Interview in VERK magazine

Documentation of the book and parts of its photographic series

Documentation from ”Howling & Humans” exhibited at Tredje våningen, Gothenburg 7-29/5-22.

https://www.instagram.com/helgaharenstam/channel/

SEMESTER / VACATION (2021)

Everyday life, dreams, motherhood, the ravages of time, coincidences, chance and clues.
22 photographs and one page a day - written everyday during a vacation when a jellyfish made of greaseproof paper arrived in the mail, a cassette tape diary from a blind grandfather was found, a fetus grew, the Fat Boy wrote "LIFE IS PAIN" on the bridge, poisonous stones and sparklers were eaten.

Participants: The Pet, The Child, The Swan, The Newcomer, The Bottle mail Writer, The Nail Biter, The Man, The Fat Boy, The Boy In The Superman Costume, The Old Mum, The Brook Horse, The Old Dad.

To buy a copy: Sailor Press

Documentation of the book and parts of its photographic series

A Sunrise Drive-by (2023-Ongoing)

The ongoing work “A Sunrise Drive-by” was exhibited in the exhibition OTID at Studio Pilot, together with works by Nina Mangalanayagam, Anna Sofia Jernryd and Mette Hultesjö. (GIBCA extended 15-22/99- 23.) The exhibition ‘OTID’ used time as a starting point to in different ways touch, and perhaps edit the concepts of memories and histories through photography.

The work consists of photographic sequences, (one of which is presented here) and the following text:

It happened that confused people and animals wandered inside the wild fence. They warned about them on the radio. We ran across the Europe-an route 18, almost every day. Waited for a gap in
traffic, read the sign and shouted: ”Kongsvinger, Arvika, Trysil, Hagfors”. We ran until an old lady was run over and they dug a tunnel under the highway. But, when the underground tunnel
was finished, we had already moved to the biggest city, where there was almost nothing but roads. It happened that we were lying in the middle of the road and saw the light from the car becoming
stronger. A spotlight that, instead of fol-lowing people, just happened to illuminate us as we rolled off the stage and into the ditch. We kicked a lamp post and the birds screeched. It happened that we cranked down all the windows of the car. Lock-ed the doors. Climbed into the backseat window. The hands touched each other over the roof of the car. The hair blew in a meeting that was blinding. Our car and the oncoming car honked at the same time. Our voices could not be heard.

It happened that we saw a sunrise Drive-By.

IN WAITING FOR WHAT IS TO COME (2018) 

I inherited a photo album from my grandmothers childhood at Mnene mission station in South Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
I opened the album and read the note:
“In waiting for what is to come”.
I then discovered that about half of the photographs were lost.
I travelled to Mnene, to a place I knew from the album and from a child memories of it, a hundred years ago, to (kind of) finish the album.

The project” In waiting for what is to come” is based on image combinations, where the pictures from my grandmother’s old album meets my own pictures. The old and new images are combined with notes and when put together a game of time and images is formed; before and after, filtered by chance, association and imagination.
The project is presented as a book, and as an exhibition (from which these images are an excerpt). The exhibition is interactive. As a book in exhibition form, where you, by opening and closing the frames, get access to the stories. The documentation on this website is from Göteborgs konsthall (Before we forget, 2019). The work has also been exhibited at Museum of work Norrköping (2018) and as part of the exhibition Within realities at Alma Löf museum 2019. It was nominated to the Swedish photobook award, and received The Swedish Book Art Award and The Hasselblad Foundation Photo Book Grant.

To buy a copy of the book: Journal

SUNSHINE & SHADOW (2017)

Sunshine & Shadow is an autobiographical story in twenty chapters. These chapters may for example include a fireworks factory, a funeral, a shooting, a broken camera, or a found note. Each chapter begins with a short text . These texts are reminiscent of those that one can find in the old adventure novels (whose purpose was to describe what kind of grand events that will happen to the heroes of the adventure, in the next chapter). In the adventures of Sunshine & Shadow, the chapter that follows is told through photographs. The words in the texts visualizes scenes and stories, before you see them, that creates a play with associations between the images and the texts. The texts builds up expectations of what is to expect, which, when not met, confuses, and forces the viewer to fill in the gaps, be a detective, and build stories and connections of her own. Sunshine & Shadow challenges and plays with the idea of reality, chronology and historiography, by creating a loosened narrative where events and thoughts from a period of life (translated into photographs and texts) falters freely between different times, between the actual world, inner visions, everyday life, fairy tale, construction, sunshine and shadow.

This material is from the first chapters in Sunshine & Shadow.
Published as a book by Sailor press 2017. Nominated to the Swedish photobook award.

To buy a copy: Sailor Press

MEMORIES FROM A STRANGER (2015-2021…)

These photographs are documentation from the project ”Memories from a stranger” (Minnen från en främling), exhibited at Jönköpings läns museum 2015, Avesta Art 2018, and as a permanent installation at The Alma Löv museum in Värmland from 2019-...
Initially, the project consisted of a jukebox that, instead of songs, played memories that have been donated anonymously during an exhibition at Kulturhuset (Stockholm, 2013). Then recordings was made of people reading them.
At Alma löv museum the memories are written on numerous small mirrors, and the collection of memories from strangers continues in the pavilion of memories…

The project continues…

A BOOK ABOUT A PICTURE / EN BOK OM EN BILD (2015)
By Helga Härenstam and Olle Essvik

A conceptual collaborative project carried out from August–September 2015, published by Rojal and first presented at the photography book fair Fotobok GBG 15. The starting point for the book is a single photograph – to which around thirty different writers, poets, journalists, photographers and artists were invited to contribute their own written or visual interpretetion/comment. Those who accepted recieved an e-mail with the photo and an instruction not to spread it.

Participants:
Catharina Gotby, Anna Lamberg, Erik Östensson, Johan Bergström, Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt, Lovisa Ringborg, Simon Berg, Inka & Niclas Lindergård, Trinidad Carrillo, Ohlsson & Dit-Cilinn, Lotta Törnroth, Tuija Lindström, Lisa Grip, Frida Franker, Rikard Laving, Anna Strand, Robert Eklund, Emma Fredriksson, Lina Haskel, Andreas Gedin, Stefan Ohlsson, Daniel Boyacioglu, Kennet Klemets, Gert Z Nordström, Leif Holmstrand, Mathias Jansson, Jenny Morelli, Tina Carlsson, Lina Hagelbäck, Sara Arvidsson, Thomas Dahl, Rebecka Nordström Graf, Nora Bencivenni, Frida Sandström, Cecilia Grönberg

To buy a copy: Rojal

VALENTINE´S DAY AND OTHER SCENES (2015)

STORIES FOR AN 87 YEAR OLD LADY (2012)

”Stories for an 87 year old lady" is an art project based on photographs and texts published by Journal. It was selected for Hasselblad Center’s exhibition Published – Photo Books in Sweden, Gothenburg Museum of Art 2018. This project has also been exhibited as soloexhibitions at CFF (Center for photography, Stockholm 2012) and at Kulturhuset (Stockholm 2013). It has also been part of the groupexhibition "Dreamscape" at Bohuslänsmuseum (Uddevalla, 2013).

To buy a copy: Journal

A DEMONSTRATION OF THE SIGN OF THE HORNS (2010)

I took this series of photographs on a snowy afternoon in December when the light was strange and we were out playing in it. Stina-li wrote my name in the snow by walking it. I followed her without knowing what we were writing. After that, I walked a heart with an arrow through it and she followed me.
Stina-li had begun to make the ”devil sign”. For some reason, I don´t know why, she did it several times when she realised I had raised the camera to take pictures.
We then built a snowman whose base turned out to be too heavy to move.
I had no light meter that day, so I happened to underexpose some of the photographs.
A family of cutouts dolls and ghosts.

This series is presented as a book with sculpture (multiple) in a limited edition of 13.

Helga Härenstam (Photography) in co-operation with Olle Essvik (Form and sculpture)

THE LOOKING GLASS PHOTOS (2009)

In The Looking Glass Photos i have been inspired by the photographs in an old family photo album and the associations they gave me. It is presented as a book/poster.
To buy a copy: Neva Books
The work has also been exhibited at Hippolyte Gallery Helsinki 2008, Format Gallery Malmö 2009, and Supermarket art fair Stockholm 2011.
The Looking Glass Photos is a story in 13 photographs and the following text:

'I wake up because it is light

because the light has found its way into my head telling me there are now things to see in reality
and that is more important

when that is no longer important, I´ll die'

THE SOCIETY (2008)

The title of the work draws its inspiration from an actual place. I have been looking for, and constructing, environments, scenes and events that are based on memories from the small community where I grew up. This place has got a name, but usually it is simply referred to as ”the society”. I see the work as a puzzle of pictures that deals with the borders between the documentary and the staged, the real and the unreal, the past and the present. It is also a story about a rural area that is becoming increasingly abandoned.
The work has been exhibited between 2008-2014 at: Seoul International Photography festival, Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, Centre de Photographie de Lectoure, Finnish museum of photography, Helsinki, Hasselblad center, ”From the collections”, Gothenburg, Centrum för fotografi, Karlskrona Konsthall and Göteborgs Konsthall.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I left the house and took a walk into town to have plaice at the restaurant of the local supermarket, Ica Indianen. From this visit I remember his face, and those of the members of the dance band on the notice board.
In town they were selling fireworks and distress rockets. A new pizza place had opened, the library was closed, and there seemed to be a funeral under way. Torn out pages from a book lay scattered all the way from the totem pole to the Filadelfia Church.
In the ditch by the hot dog stand:
”It is always us women who end up suffering. To die is not to suffer. To suffer is to live when your loved ones are dead.”
In the parking lot outside the paint and cosmetics shop:
“The day is so short, the road is so long. So come run with my song, let us hurry away! Here is no peace to be found. In this place only wolves abound.”
By Nilssons Coats:
“There are lots of things that I can’t understand, all I know is that I have to comply with what the others decide.”

CV

Helga Härenstam

Contact helga@helgaharenstam.se
 
Born 1980. Lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden
Instagram @helgaharenstam

Published Books

The Exposed Eye #2 (2025) — Helga Härenstam & Anna Strand, Rojal förlag
The Exposed Eye #1 (2024) — Helga Härenstam & Anna Strand, Sailor Press
Three Years of Childhood During the Era of Extinction (2024) — Helga Härenstam, Rojal förlag
Vacation/Semester (2021) — Helga Härenstam, Sailor Press
Howling and Humans (2021) — Helga Härenstam, Journal förlag
In Waiting for What is to Come (2018) — Helga Härenstam, Journal förlag
Sunshine & Shadow (2016) — Helga Härenstam, Sailor Press
En bok om en bild (2015) — Helga Härenstam & Olle Essvik, Rojal förlag
Valentine’s Day and Other Scenes (2015) — Helga Härenstam, Rojal förlag Stories for an 87-Year-Old Lady (2013) — Helga Härenstam, Journal förlag
A Demonstration of the Sign of the Horns (2010) 
The Looking Glass Photos (2009) — Helga Härenstam
 

Selected Exhibitions

Supporting structures, Studio Pilot, Gothenburg, 2025
The Exposed Eye (duo exhibition), Alingsås Konsthall, 2025
Three Years of Childhood During the Era of Extinction (solo), Fotocentrum Raseborg, Finland, 2025
The Roads. The Scenes, Studio Pilot, Gothenburg, 2023
Howling & Humans (solo), Tredje Våningen, Gothenburg, 2022
Within Realities, Alma Löv Museum, Värmland, 2019–ongoing
Here’s Looking at You, Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum, Stockholm, 2019
Published – Photobooks in Sweden, Centrum för fotografi, Stockholm, 2019
Before We Forget, Göteborgs Konsthall, 2018–2019
In Waiting for What is to Come (solo), Museum of Work, Norrköping, 2018
Memories from a Stranger, Avesta Art, 2018
Deed – Photography from the Collection of the Gothenburg Museum of Art, 2016
From the Collection of the Public Art Agency Sweden, Gothenburg, 2016
Memories from a Stranger (solo), Galleri 54, Gothenburg, 2015
Memories from a Stranger (solo), Jönköpings Läns Museum, 2015
Dreamscape, Bohusläns Museum, 2014
Solo exhibition, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, 2014
Solo exhibition, Ebelingmuseet, Eskilstuna, 2013
Stories for an 87-Year-Old Lady (solo), CFF, Stockholm, 2012
Supermarket Art Fair, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, 2012
Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, 2012
Solo exhibition, Silvénska Galleriet, Säffle, 2012
From the Collections, Hasselblad Center & Gothenburg Art Museum, 2012
Solo exhibition, Rummet, Galleri Format, Malmö, 2012
Solo exhibition, Gallery Nordens Ljus, Stockholm, 2012
Fotografi Nu, Karlskrona Konsthall, 2012
Seoul Photo Fair, Seoul, 2009
Seoul International Photography Festival, Seoul, 2009
Hippolyte Studio, Helsinki, 2009
Vårsalongen, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 2009
Jeune Création – Art Contemporain, La Bellevilloise, Paris, 2007
Norrköpings Konstmuseum, 2007
Fotografi Nu, Centrum för fotografi, Stockholm, 2007
Centre de Photographie de Lectoure, France, 2007
New Nordic Photography, Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, 2006
Photo Fair, Factory, Nacka Strand, Stockholm, 2006
Fiber Gallery, Gothenburg, 2006
Gallery Edition Copenhagen, 2006
Doga – Norwegian Museum of Design and Architecture, Oslo, 2006
Gallery Doktor Glas, Stockholm, 2006
 

Selected Work Experience

•Senior Lecturer in Photography, HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, 2013–ongoing
•Member, The Photo Authors (Swedish Association of Professional Photographers), 2024–ongoing
•Reference Group Member, Swedish Authors’ Fund, 2025–ongoing
•Working Group Member, Swedish Arts Council – “Artworks and Cartoons”, 2018–2023
•Board Member, CFF – Centrum för fotografi, 2018–2020
•Lecturer in Visual Art, Yrgo Photography School & Art College, Gothenburg, 2010–2013
•Board Member, BOX (artist-run gallery), Gothenburg, 2014–2015
 
 

Representation (Selection)

Public Art Agency Sweden
Swedish Association for Art
Gothenburg Art Museum
Hasselblad Center
Nordhems Konst & Design
Various private collections
 

Selected Grants

5-Year Working Grant, Swedish Authors’ Fund, 2023
Scholarship from SFF, The Photo Authors and the Swedish Institute in Paris, 2023
Project Grant, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, 2019
Photobook Grant, Hasselblad Foundation, 2017
Grant, Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, 2015
2-Year Working Grant, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, 2013
Project Grant, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, 2011
Residency, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, 2011
1-Year Working Grant, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, 2009
 

Education

2006–2008. Master of Fine Arts in Photography, University of Gothenburg
2003–2006