Artist of the day, June 18, 2020: Jens Olof Lasthein, a Swedish freelance photographer

Jens Olof Lasthein (1964) is a Swedish freelance photographer. His widely exhibited work principally covers scenes before and after the war in former Yugoslavia and the areas across Europe bordering the old Iron Curtain.

Born in Sweden, Lasthein grew up in Denmark. After school, he travelled widely in Asia and eastern Europe. He worked in a shipyard and as a bus driver before studying photography at Nordens Fotoskola (the Nordic Photo School) in Stockholm (1989–1992).

Since 1992, Lasthein has lived in Stockholm and worked as a freelance photographer for magazines and newspapers as well as on his own projects. Two of his major projects, which have formed the bases of his exhibitions and have also been published in book form, are described below.

Moments in Between
Moments in Between (1994–1999) presents photographs taken before, during and after the wars in the former Yugoslavia. According to Lasthein, it is an "attempt to understand life in the shadow of war".

White Sea, Black Sea
White Sea, Black Sea (2001–2007) documents a journey along the eastern border of the European Union from Arkhangelsk in the north to Odessa in the south. It explores the transition of the borderland between eastern and western Europe. Lasthein explains that his interest in eastern Europe began when he spent a week in Moscow in 1982 followed by two months hitchhiking in Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1984. The first photographs to become part of the project were actually taken in St Petersburg in 1993 while he was doing a photographic report on the Russian mafia. Lasthein's project was reinforced by his irritation at a tendency in western Europe for people to forget about the areas of Europe to the east of the EU borders. He also sought to visit places which would help to provide answers to existential questions about who we are and why we are here.

Lasthein's photographs are taken with a panoramic camera which gives them a Cinemascope appearance. He became acquainted with the technique in 1991 when he followed the work of film directors Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa. Using an extremely wide angle of 140°, he decided to apply it to still photography. It provided possibilities of complexity, allowing more than one story to be included in the picture. It also gave him scope for theatrical scenes where everything is happening at once. Finally, he believes the technique creates conditions for the viewer to believe in the picture.

© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Jens Olof Lasthein. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Jens Olof Lasthein

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1993

 Sarajevo, Bosnia, 1994

Sarajevo, Bosnia 1994

 Debar, Macedonia, 1995

Ključ, Bosnian 1996

Sanski Most, Bosnia, 1996

Sanski Most, Bosnia, 1996

Sarajevo, Bosnia, 1996

Sarajevo, Bosnia, 1996

Belgrade, Serbia, 1997

Srebrenica, Republika Srpska, 1997

 Gjakovë, Kosovo, 1999

Gurahonț, Romania, 2001

Transsylvania, Romania ,2001

 Minsk, Belarus, 2005

Chișinău, Moldova, 2006

Grigoriopol, Transnistria, 2006

Odessa, Ukraine, 2006

Tiraspol, Transnistria, 2006

Kaliningrad, Russia, 2007

Gali, Abkhazia, 2009

 Ureki, Georgia, 2013

Home among black hills Pictures from Charleroi, Belgium
the heart of what was once known as Pays Noir

Home among black hills Pictures from Charleroi, Belgium
the heart of what was once known as Pays Noir

Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, 2015

Ats Hägglund
slaughterhouse worker (portrait)

Copenhagen, Denmark (editorial)

From Disparate Swedens Series

From Disparate Swedens Series

Odessa, Reportage from the Ukrainian city by the Black Sea

Odessa, Reportage from the Ukrainian city by the Black Sea

Gunilla Hagberg, doctor
(portrait)

Ingrid Dahlberg, wine grower
(Portrait)

Rickard Gustafson, CEO, SAS
Corporate portrait

Roger Blomkvist, pensioner, and Per Almqvist, brain surgeon
Corporate portrait