Tommy Ingberg was born in sweden in 1980 and is
a self-taught photographer and visual artist. He works with photography and
digital image editing, creating minimalistic and self-reflecting surreal photo
montages which deal with human nature, feelings and thoughts.
Tommy leaves the interpretation of his work up
to the viewers of his works but says in his artist for his series called
"reality rearranged", "For me, surrealism is about trying to
explain something abstract like a feeling or a thought, expressing the
subconscious with a picture. The Reality Rearranged series is my first try at
describing reality trough surrealism. During the two and a half years I have
worked on the series I have used my own inner life, thoughts and feelings as
seeds to my pictures. In that sense the work is very personal, almost like a
visual diary. Despite this subjectiveness in the process I hope that the work
can engage the viewer in her or his own terms. I want the viewers to produce their
own questions and answers when looking at the pictures, my own interpretations
are really irrelevant in this context. "
He has received international recognition and his
work shown in numerous publications and receiving awards and honorable mentions
from many different competitions including International Photography Awards.
Tommy has been creating since he was
a child. He's had an early fascination with cameras. At some point he
chose photography and ever since then he has been constantly photographing. However
there was a point in Tommy's life where slowly and without really noticing
it, he lost direction and began spiraling downwards until in his late twenties
finally hit "some sort of bottom".
Deep down in his own personal
"abyss" he found what art is for him. He started creating pictures.
He stopped trying to make what others thought was “art” or “good photography”
and made pictures just for himself. By crossing that line he felt free to
tell his stories, and by crossing the line from photography into photo montages
he had the tools to do so.
In this he found something he loved doing and
something he could be proud of. He found a purpose. It has not been an easy
journey, life seldom is, but I’ve kept on climbing.He believes this
is the awesome thing about life. Without the bad you can’t have the really
good. He believes without living through the bad things, he would not have
found his art.
This is his artist statement for his art series
called; Solitaire
"Solitaire" is my second series of
surreal pictures after "Reality Rearranged". In this series I keep
exploring how to visualize abstract concepts like feelings or thoughts, how to
express the subconscious with pictures.
I think "Solitaire" is
a suitable title for this kind of work. The stuff that goes on inside your
mind, like your thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams and decision-making are
something that in its essence is yours alone. It is a game you play by
yourself, like a game of solitaire.
Despite this I do think the concepts
and thoughts born in self reflection are universal for all of us, we all carry
the same set of feelings inside us, and we all in our own way search for
answers, trying to make sense of life, the world and being.
I want my
pictures to connect to the viewer on this basic level and invite to reflection
and I hope you can find something in them that in some way connects to your own
game of solitaire.
Post by Jackie
