Portraits by Waiters
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson
Multinational Enterprises
English
Softcover
Edition of 250
120 pages
148 x 200 mm
2013
ISBN Not Available
Portraits by Waiters contains images of Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson posing in front of his own camera in different rooms, on different occasions. When reading the photos one will follow his private daily life and may soon notice that he appears as bored, isolated and eager at the same time. In his exploration of photography as a means of documentation and the contemporary use and status of the medium, Jóhannsson has created a visual diary of himself.
During an eight-week residency in Cologne, Germany, Jóhannsson asked waiters and waitresses to capture his portrait while eating dinner. By posing in front of the camera Jóhannsson reverses the role of the artist and the role of the photographic sitter. The operator is replaced by an anonymous person who, uncontrolled and forced, is capturing a portrait of the artist whom consequently becomes the subject of the image. In this sense he removes himself from authorship and demonstrates art as a process and transformation rather than an outcome of the photograph as an aesthetic object of art.
This photobook contains a loose, lamintated essay by Sara Rundgren Yazdani.
(source: https://multinationalenterprises.org/PBW)
About the Artist
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson works with photography, sculpture, curating, and the production of artists’ books.
multinationalenterprises.org
(source: https://www.bethanien.de/en/exhibitions/sveinn-fannar-johannsson/)
About the Publisher
MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES [ME] is an artists-run platform for publishing, promoting and the collecting of artists’ publications and related materials. Established in 2012 by Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, Multinational Enterprises aims to balance between in-house, low and high-end productions in close collaboration with artists, designers and writers. Art book fairs are attended on a regular basis and exhibitions are curated at infrequent intervals.
multinationalenterprises.org
(source: https://multinationalenterprises.org/ABOUT-ME-1)
