With Öland in the camera lens

Vicklebybon Emmi Roosling never ceases to be fascinated by her childhood island. Now the photographer is current with This Is Where We Are Now, a photo book about an Öland in transformation.

The Öland landscape is a recurring motif when photographer Emmi Roosling creates her art. She describes herself as “an unwilling landscape photographer”, where the island constantly draws her with its expansive, straight silhouette. But a conventionally beautiful end result is not something Emmi directly strives for – on the contrary she rather wants to depict her surroundings from an honest and unadorned perspective:

– My landscape photographs are probably quite strict, sometimes rather boring even. I prefer to save beautiful sunsets in my memory rather than with the camera. There is an everyday life even in nature and for me that is considerably more interesting.

Recently much of her focus has revolved around a project about the climate changes on the island, a kind of documentation of an Öland that will likely look very different in the future:

– In my new photo book, This Is Where We Are Now, I alternate landscape photographs with self-portraits in a story about wanting to preserve time as it is right now, before the really big changes strike with rising sea levels and affected agricultural landscapes.

In the studio in Vickleby on the island's southwest side Emmi allows her creative process to take time – sometimes it can take several years before it falls into place what a particular photograph should be used for. The need to photograph is, however, constant, an almost compulsive collecting of different elements in Öland's nature:

– You could say that I collect views of the landscape. It can be streaks of clouds, a stand of trees or the texture of the soft summer grass in the field. Photographing is a way for me to process my feelings and a kind of working through of what is happening in the world and in life.

She develops the photographs, among other things, through the cyanotype technique, an analog printing method from the 1800s where light-sensitive solutions are applied to different materials such as paper or fabric. When a negative is placed on the material, which is then exposed to UV light or direct sunlight, the image comes to life with a color composition that often shifts in blue:

– Many times I have heard that my works resemble paintings, despite being photographs. I think that partly depends on the texture of the paper or fabric I use, but also on the uncontrollable in the development process where you do not know exactly how the final result will turn out.

This Is Where We Are Now is released in summer 2024, but if you happen to be passing Öland you can already see Emmi's photo art in Sommarnöjens visningshus in Stora Rör.

Visit our exhibition house

Our exhibition house in Stora Rör is open to visitors this summer. It is possible to book personal viewings when we are at the house. Email us and we will schedule a time!