All around us, in the urban environment, are ongoing displays of activity. People meet, laugh, cry and love. There is love and sorrow, everyday life and celebration. When you freeze these moments, magic arises. The event in this thousandth of a second turns into your own interpretation. He scratched his eye, was it a tear that came? Did she turn around because her girlfriend was on her way, or was she looking for a taxi? Was it the first kiss, had they just met, or were they celebrating something else?
People interacting with one another, laughing, crying and showing love. You see affection, sorrow and happiness in their everyday life.
For Mats Alfredsson, street photography is an attitude towards photography. It is about being in the moment, a fly on the wall and making the viewer feel and experience the same. Small human events that normally pass unnoticed, but in his photographs get captured in time forever.
His passion for this classic genre is based on a genuine interest in people, of all ages and social classes. Behind the pictures are miles of walks, hours of waiting at places of interest, travel by train, tram and subway and the occasional bar hangout.
The golden rule for Mats is to not use posed subject matters and never photograph people he knows or has met before. It is an exciting journey where the unexpected and rapidly changing moment is the reward.
During a ten-year period in the late 70s and further into the 80s, Mats worked as a reporter and press photographer in the suburbs of Gothenburg, which later took him on to Borås and a continuation of his journalistic career.
For the past fifteen years, he has been deeply involved in the development of street photography, both in Sweden and internationally. He has run workshops and arranged street photo trips to cities such as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Chicago. Mats was one of the authors of the big photo walks in Gothenburg with over 200 participants. He has also set up a number of solo exhibitions in Sweden and the USA.
Doday’s lecture will be an inspiring and insightful journey through Mat’s street photography life.
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