GRAFFITI / PORTRAITURE / DOCUMENTARY
PERSONALIA
Janne Riikonen
Personalia is a visual study of graffiti culture in Sweden, focusing on the people behind the thriving underground culture. Thousands of graffiti writers devote their lives to the peculiar and controversial form of art; by their actions they gain respect and fame among their own rather small community, whereas are considered merely a nuisance by the general public. While graffiti often is seen as a youth culture and most graffiti writers start painting in their teenage years, the addiction grows deep roots that grip many for a lifetime.
Riikonen spent four years photographing the Swedish graffiti scene, aiming to find the most dedicated and hardcore writers. The challenge naturally was that graffiti writers generally never want to be seen, even less so be photographed. Showing no actual graffiti, Personalia scratches deeper than just the surface. Through Riikonen's close portraits the viewers get to meet the unseen practitioners of illegal graffiti, some masked, some unmasked.
Hardcover
Screen-printed slipcase
Stamp numbered
64 pages
Offset printing
30 x 24,5 cm
First edition of 800 copies
ISBN 978-91-984059-1-0
Designed by Justin Boyesen and Josef Ruona
September 2019
35€
Featured / In media:
FotoRoom
FK Magazine
Bearbooks literature blog
The book is part of the following collections:
Brooklyn Museum Library
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library
Musée de l'Elysée Library
Kiasma Library
Stedelijk Museum Library
Tate Britain Library
The Virtual Bookshelf (Josef Chladek)
Exhibitions
Hippolyte, Helsinki, 2019
Nykyaika, Tampere, 2019
Fotografiska Talent, Stockholm, 2018
Lat.36 Art Arena, Östersund, 2018
Galleri Kontrast, 2016