FEAR - MORTEN BO

I Fear Morten Bo Archive Catalog 1966-1981,

II Fame Morten Bo Archive Catalog 1981-1993.

Available with an archival pigment print.

Published by fear&fame 2021. Open Edition.

Morten Bo has published an impressive photo book, a two-volume piece of over 6 kilos containing 3000 photographs from 1966 onwards to 1993, the year in which, according to his own statement, he stopped photographing.

It is a life´s work that we are presented with, created by one of the country´s most important documentary photographers, who had a strong impact on Danish photography in the 1970s and 1980s with his many photo exhibitions and book publications. Later on, as founder and long-time leader of the photography school Fatamorgana, he helped to support many of the young talents who have since influenced Danish art photography.

In the two volumes you will rediscover some of his iconic photographs, such as the introductory picture from the book Is there a knight in orange? (1968), where you see a well-dressed cigarette-smoking man, in a crowded street scene (p. 88). Or the picture of the snowy landscape from the book På landet (1973) with the snow-covered Volkswagen in front of the small house in otherwise anonymous surroundings (page 205). It is teeming with such images. But there are also countless images that have never been published before.

And it is a pleasure to see the many unknown images taken by a photographer who curiously examines the visual possibilities of the photographic medium. We follow the young years; experiments with the aesthetic expression. Many examples show how Morten Bo was preoccupied with creating images that had the important elements shifted towards the edge of the image, leaving an uneventful center in the middle of the photograph. Although the images sometimes share the characteristics of snapshot photography, there is no doubt that these are consciously approved and disapproved . In Danish photography this had not beenseen before and as a result of this Morten Bo became a member of the progressive Delta Photos at a young age, founded by Jesper Høm and Gregers Nielsen among others.

In his later years, he again found an interest in the limitations of aesthetics and explored the visual possibilities in the contrast between light and shadow. In between these time periods a lot of years had been invested into communal involvement, which resulted in countless projects. The most important of these events and projects are now retained in the book, and we are presented with events forgotten by time, such as the demonstration against the introduction of VAT (page 8). In this way, the book also serves as an important supplement to our common memory of the 1970s and 1980s through photography, which is otherwise dominated by the press photographers imagery.

The private Morten Bo also appears with his family in the two-volumes. One senses how the family is steadily growing in numbers. Holidays are spent in borrowed cottages, family shows up here and there, but never insistent or intimidating. The private is subordinate to the story as a whole.

At the back of each volume you will find a chronological list that informs about the individual images. In addition to that, we get factual information about Morten Bo´s professional life, and we can therefore follow his artistic career through the years and new information adds to the story of the photographs.

The titles of the two volumes, Fear and Fame, are open to interpretation. One suggestion could be that the first volume is about the formative years of fear and searching, contrary to the mature years of fame in the second volume. One suggestion could also be that it simply sounds good in English, as Morten Bo himself has suggested!

With his impressive piece, Morten Bo has given us many stories, both his own private ones as well as the stories that unfolded in society. We now see them retrospectively lined up through the photographer´s own interpretive gaze. It is both art and cultural history in the same moment. Overwhelming, fascinating and something you can return to again and again.

Ingrid Fischer Jonge, August 11, 2021.

SPECS:

200 x 300 mm

740 pages

hard cover

PRINT SIZE

Prints are archival pigment prints measuring 20x25cm (8x10 inch) -

edition of 15

20 X 250 mm

Scroll down to select print number, all books and prints are signed.