“Taxpayers’ Lives” at the Swedish Church, NY

An exhibition of photographs of ordinary Swedish lives covering several decades is currently on display at the Swedish Church, NYC. 

  • Anders Walfridson, one of the men behind the exhibition "Swedish Stories (They Taxpayers’ Lives)", which can be viewed at the Swedish Church in New York until March 31.

  • Who are they – these people? A girl smiles at a school photograph. A woman looks up hesitantly from underneath a wedding veil from the 1920’s. A muscular man poses proudly in his bathing shorts. The exhibition tells us something about different times' fashion, interior design, architecture and everyday objects.

  • A young Swedish man proudly showing off his muscles.

  • The idea for the exhibition Swedish Stories "Skattebetalarnas Liv (Taxpayers’ Lives)" was born when Benny Cruz, Andrés Stoopendaal, and Anders Walfridson one day found an old photo album in a recycling container.

  • A couple posing.

  • “The photographs were private, intimate and we felt they had to be saved,” says Anders Walfridson.

  • One of the older photographs in the exhibition shows a young woman in what seems like late 19th century fashion.

  • The album also triggered the trio to go hunting for more albums, they found some and bought others at flea markets. The photographs they saw in these albums– simple and ordinary like private photographs oftentimes are – feature people on vacation, people at parties, people on the beach and so on. Most of them stem from the 1930’s and 1940’s, but there are also photographs from the 1960’s and 1970’s.

  • “When we had gathered a great deal of photographs, we decided it was time for an exhibition,” continues Walfridson. “We chose the photos we liked best, the only criteria we had was our feelings.”

  • They showed their photos in Göteborg, where they all live. And now you can see them at the Swedish Church in New York City. Typical Swedish lives that, had it not been for this exhibition, would have gone into oblivion.

  • The exhibition is on display until March 31. For more information:
    http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?di=641129