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Gold 2020 Book / Documentary

The Young Ones

  • Photographer
    Simon Johansson
  • Prize
    Gold in Book / Documentary

In this series I’m showing a world that belongs to the children. A world in a world. A place where children are on their own. A world where they themselves play all the leading roles, trying different identities before becoming self aware. They live in the borderlands between fantasy and reality. I’ve visited a world that I myself once belonged to. The series is published as a photobook: “The Young Ones” (Journal, 2019). 63 documentary photos taken between 2002-2019 in Europe and Costa Rica. There is an introductory text about my own childhood in both English and Swedish (written by me).

I'm a freelance photographer and journalist/writer based in Stockholm, Sweden. Member of The Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF). 2016 I released the photobook “Across the Bridge” (Journal) about everyday life on the Swedish island Öland. My second photobook, “A Familiar Place” (Journal, 2018), is about everyday life in Stockholm. In 2019 my third photobook "The Young Ones" (Journal) was released. It's about children. In my fourth book, No Man's Land (Journal, 2023), I return to the island I portrayed in my debut book. I prefer to work in a classic documentary black and white tradition.