The Moods of Visby 

I came to Gotland in 2021 and was immediately entranced by its beauty and artistic diversity. I spent months wandering the streets of Visby, capturing the town in various lighting and weather conditions, shaping a unique reflection of this place I had come to call home.

It wasn't until the end of spring of 2022, as I sifted through hundreds of photos I had taken, that I discovered the unifying thread that bound them all together. Some would have called it a character, some would have called it an essence, I called it ‘The Moods of Visby’. For in these pictures, I had captured Visby in different states: at night and at noon, in darkness and in light, in cold and in warmth, in silence and in noise.

As we spend our days living in one place, our perception of it can become dulled, our senses blunted. We see the same colours, taste the same flavours, and hear the same sounds, until our world becomes small and familiar. These photographs reminded me yet again that there is no such thing as the same place. Places are not static; they are ever-evolving. As one of my university professors recently said: "place is not an object - it's a process". 'The Moods of Visby' is but a fraction of the infinite perspectives that this town holds. I am grateful for the opportunity to live in a place that never repeats itself, a place that continues to surprise and inspire. The series can be viewed at Campus Gotland, Visby, Sweden. 

/Jef