Annika Thörn Legzdins Swedish, b. 1965
Annika Thörn Legzdins work is far from the aesthetics of nature photographers. Here, the brutality of nature obtains its own existential justification, one that is worthy of its own history.
Visual artist Annika Thörn Legzdins works approach nature with a direct and documentary methodology but with an entirely different gaze – a heightened perception that serial repetition amplifies hidden, perhaps only imaginary, patterns that remind us of time and transience. She moves within a photographic tradition with connections to artists following in the footsteps of Bernd and Hilla Becher, such as Axel Hütte, Thomas Struth, and Candida Höfer, but Robert Smithson also comes to mind. We don't receive embellished postcard views, and she is far from the aesthetics of nature photographers. Here, the brutality of nature obtains its own existential justification, one that is worthy of its own history.
Annika Thörn Legzdins holds a master's degree from the Academy of Photography, Department of Art at Konstfack in Stockholm, and has also studied at the Royal Institute of Art. She has exhibited at Fotografins Hus, Halmstad Konsthall, in New York, and at the Museum of Modern Fine Art in Minsk, among others. Her works are represented in the State Art Council and Stockholm County Council.
