JH Engström – Sketch of Paris
Photographs by JH Engström
For over twenty years, Swedish photographer JH Engström has lived and worked in Paris, a city that, like New York, has a long photographic pedigree; countless photographers have been inspired by its iconic architecture and busy streets. Sketch of Paris, however, is hardly a catalog of classic Parisian scenes, offering instead a raw yet lyrical portrayal of the artist’s misadventures, loves, and random encounters in its streets, bars, and artist lofts—an entirely personal Paris. Engström brings us on a gritty, no-holds-barred guided tour of life in his adopted city. The photographs provide a type of homage to Paris, a city that has greatly influenced and inspired Engström—as a photographer and as a person. Beautifully produced in a slipcased volume, the book brings together 250 color and black-and-white photographs all made between 1991 and 2012, tracing a critical time during the development of the artist’s own voice and vision.