Social documentary: Ditte Haarløv Johnsen in conversation with Charlotte Præstegaard Schwartz
How well do you need to know those you photograph? Ditte Haarløv Johnsen puts into words her work as a documentary photographer when she visits the Blixen hall.
Documentary photographers often focus on portraying different and less privileged groups in society than the ones they and their audience live in. As a young photographer, Ditte Haarløv Johnsen returned to Mozambique, where she lived most of her childhood, and photographed her own circle of family, friends and lovers. Haarløv Johnsen is a trained documentary film director from the Danish Film School in 2007, Ryerson University, Canada, 2001 and Fatamorgana Fotoskole 2000.
Ditte Haarløv Johnsen's practice grows out of a long international and national tradition of social documentary. Haarløv Johnsen photographs people for whom something is at stake. She is interested in the whole person and shows how difficult and sometimes impossible life conditions can go hand in hand with big dreams and heartfelt hope.
When Haarløv Johnsen visits the Diamond, it turns into a conversation about paying tribute to her close relationships, as well as how photography can give us an insight into environments we otherwise do not have access to. The talk originates in the Royal Danish Library's permanent photo exhibition The Camera and Us, which includes Haarløv Johnsen's work Maputo Diary.
”Maputo Diary is my diary. Since its vulnerable and innocent beginning, it has become a monument over life lived between different cultures, friendships and people that are no longer here. With my camera I insist on intimacy in the pain. When death is all around, life burns bright and strong.” – Ditte Haarløv Johnsen
Participants
Charlotte Præstegaard Schwartz
Charlotte Præstegaard Schwartz is a photo curator and research librarian with responsibility for the National Collection of Photography at the Royal Danish Library. She has a master's degree and PhD in art history with a focus on art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Charlotte Præstegaard Schwartz specialises in photography and photography history.
