Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff

Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff (1967, Sweden) is one of the most prominent Swedish artists to work in photography. It was with good reason that she represented her nation at the 1999 Venice Biennale. In her work, von Hausswolff majors in photography en scène, with the focus on the existential. She has gained recognition for her tableaux telling stories of violence, suffering and death. Much of the tension in these works lies in their visual commonalities with documentary photography and tabloid journalism. Nevertheless, von Hausswolff has carefully composed her images. An important element in von Hausswolff’s work is the relation of cause to consequence. She would argue that it seems causes often remain shrouded in darkness while their consequences are in plain sight.