BREATHE MY DEAR

INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBION

The first International Photo Exhibition at Slipvillan 2023

This exhibition is not a competition. The photographers have been selected among many others by me, simply because of the content of the photographs but also the work processes of the creators: the photographers. The exhibition will be “a meeting place” for conversation, exchange and collaboration between different actors in photography and art.

For over a year I have been trying to shape this exhibition and now it is done! My idea and my goal has been to create an opportunity, a space for photographers from different countries and different cultures to show and expose their works to the public; photographs where “the living” are at the center of their stories. The process of selecting photographs and artists was not based on genre or styles but content; the poetry, the stories and also the photographer’s personal approach to creating.

The words “Breathe My Dear!” is just a title, a name of the exhibition and not a theme. As curator, I am generally not interested in themes for any art exhibitions.

After years of the pandemic and then a war right after, these words just came to me! At that moment I got this idea for a photo exhibition. It may seem that these events have nothing at all to do with each other, but still, at that exhausting moment, those words were like a shot!

This exhibition received no financial support from anywhere. But not having it was out of the question. With my own savings and lots of help from all the participants who have been great supporters, putting up with what they could and last but not least enormous gratitude to Rikard Fåhraeus and Laetitia Deschamps from Slipvillan as well as Hiroshi Okura and Azumi Okabe from NiigataEya (gallery) from Japan. Many thanks to all of you passionate artists and creators. I hope I can continue to shape new annual photo exhibitions in Slipvillan.

Curator: Masoud Shahsavari

Summer 2023