"We photograph everything for our photo albums: family images that take on a central importance in our lives ... The pictures become proof of love, friends and family and are part of the creation of our own identity. Within the history of photography, photo albums have never played an important role and the images have been regarded more as depictive than artistic. In art today, however, the private image has acquired an increasingly prominent role. It is the personal, the individual life that is depicted and presented, and the boundary between the private and public is erased more and more.

"At first glance, Anna Clarén’s photographs appear frighteningly beautiful but underneath that surface is a kind of underlying unease that is evoked by the images’ thin, pale appearance. Her photographs are personal but because they bring what is private into the public sphere, we can all share in a life that perhaps we can all recognise ourselves in.

"Her photos become evidence of the life that is lived in the fear that everything can be lost."

Text © Maria Patomella, 2013

Anna Claren, from the series Close to Home

Anna Claren, from the series Holding