#social developments

49/51 - Björn Larsson

‘Everything put together falls apart, seems to be the red thread in Björn Larsson's new book with images of old abandoned wooden houses and barns in the Swedish countryside. The book is designed in correspondence with its subject – loose sheets hold together by a rubber band and a plastic bag. The title 49/51 refers to the breakpoint when more people are living in cities than in rural areas. The book contains a before and after perspective using old aerial photographs in combination with a contemporary visual report.’

I really like the subject of this work because I am interested in social developments and in the word ‘home’. The materials are carefully combined to create a home but after a while people abandoned them to live somewhere else. This development is interesting because it is accompanied by cultural, technical, social, political and financial developments. The houses are the visual result of development within a society. I really like the combination of images of the houses and crops of old images by Sune Jonsson. Third, I like books where the design is part or adds something to the subject of the book. 

See the full book here.