Hannah Rosales Reviews Tommy Ingberg

Tommy Ingberg is a Swedish Photographer who creates his work around surrealism. Born in 1980, Ingberg is fascinated with the idea of exploring his thoughts, feelings, what he calls his "inner life," through surrealism. His idea of specific concepts behind his artwork is mainly leaving the interpretation up to his viewers. He also specializes in montages. 

In his specific series called "Reality Rearranged/Solitarie," he uses surrealism to describe reality. He states, "In that sense the work is very per­sonal, almost like a visual diary. Despite this sub­jec­tive­ness in the process I hope that the work can engage the viewer in hers or his own terms. I want the viewer to pro­duce their own ques­tions and answers when look­ing at the pic­tures, my own inter­pre­ta­tions are really irrel­e­vant in this context." 

All of the photos in this series really grabbed my attention, but I saw a common mini theme within three of the photos. In one photograph, a stone is floating in the sky above a man with an umbrella. Personally, I see the stone representing a burden in one's life, and the man trying to protect himself from the burden with the umbrella. In another photograph, a man is tied to a stone, while trying to use balloons to lift himself off the ground. Here, it's as if the man is trying to "ease the weight" of the burden with the balloons. Both of these resources would ultimately fail. They represent superficial means to try to get rid of the burden. In the next photograph, a man is incased in a rock while in a sort of reclining position on the side of a mountain. Although this photograph is titled "Struggle," it almost seems as if he is content with his burden. In others words, to quote one of my favorite rappers (NF), "I fell in love with my pain," seems to be another way to put it into perspective.