Photographs by Jonas Lindstroem
Excerpted from Jonas Lindstroem’s new project Believe, these seemingly unconnected images reveal an intensely personal lens on how fragmented modern life can be.
A photographer and filmmaker based in Berlin, Jonas Lindstroem has been working on Believe for one and a half years, letting the work be guided by the notion that the world is a magical place. The photographs are staged to look like everyday life, playing with the tension between the real and unreal, capturing a slice of the simultaneous realities happening in any given moment. Lindstroem places images that mimic the ones found in newspapers next to fantastical portraits, emphasizing that reality can often feel stranger than fiction. He sees this work as commentary on how we are living our lives on screens, where everything is premeditated. “I’m fascinated by the situations we put ourselves into,” he said. “These images will mean different things to different people, based on their expectations and realities.”
TALENT Adam, Nahla Abbas, Lera Abova, Isi Ahmed, Maya Dejean, Enise Deniz, Merve Deniz, Dominic, Lisa Eisert, Asmaa Foda, Israa Fouani, Samuel Echevarria Galletera, Elouan Gallus, Sarah Hamad, Sade Itani, Alicia Janke, Meriem Mohammed, Radi Mohammed, Houley Mattouw, Stéfani Beatriz Moreno Mammel, NONI, Noah Oliveira, Houda Ouakili, Kim Quan, Rayne, Fabian Riess, Josef Rothmeier, Max Semmlinger, Esha Suparman, Egon Thuile, Celine Thümler, Victor, Ibra Wane, Zoe TALENT DIRECTOR Dominique Booker PRODUCTION Iconoclast Germany & USA, Josephine Conen, Hope Gettler DIGITAL TECH Studio Private SET DESIGN ASSISTANTS Emilia Margulies, Leonardo Papini SPECIAL THANKS Patrick Glatthaar, Wataru Suzuki, Paloma Brytscha, Olivia Gideon Thomson, We Folk, Christoph Mack, Raul Suciu, Nathan Parker
This article first appeared in Atmos Volume 07: Prism with the headline “Make Believe.”
A prism is a multidimensional body that refracts, disperses, or in some cases, distorts light. Atmos Volume 07: Prism is a study of light, color, dimension, and perspective. It asks such questions as: How do we find the light in a world that can feel so dark? How do our identities shape the lenses through which we experience reality? How do we move past binary thinking and embrace a more prismatic or nuanced view of the world? How do ideas disseminate and refract? What role does transparency play in that process? What symbolism do specific colors hold, in both the human and natural world?
Make Believe: Vignettes of Everyday Magic
