Nearly half a lifetime ago I moved overseas to Sweden, to a town only an hour away from where one branch of my family tree has roots. But about a century ago, that branch joined millions of other Europeans in setting out for America. And now, here I am back in the same neck of the woods, as it were. From my summer road trip through Sweden, this is my visual ode to the country that so warmly welcomed me many years ago, to the country I now call home. Having only lived in a few distant parts of Southern Sweden, most of this road trip was through areas new to me. But when rolling into a little village or small town, several times I was struck by a sense of home, as if not only had I been there before, but I had spent much time or even lived there before. This led to discussion of birthplace, home, moving, settling, and ultimately the notions of place & self. Series 1: Southbound & Down - B&W film, timeless & tactile & tangible & flawed & real. Dreamlike but real, a bit fuzzy around the edges, much like my memory. “Pure” BW scans of the negatives felt too binary, too cold. And because the images themselves are anything but cold, I then... (magic); no color at all was added or removed. These much better reflect the warmth of both the summer season and of the landscapess. Each is a 1/1 at https://foundation.app/collection/now-end Series 2: Shotgun Sweden – Digital pictures, edited by my color-blind eyes until they most pleased me. These are mostly shot from the passenger seat of our moving car, include a little bit of everything, and were color/contrast edited only with the iPhone/Mac photo app. The first and final images (w/o text) are (nearly) free mints. The others will be released in small groups as Open Editions for reasonable duration. Series 3: Somnia du Nord – Colors that are wrong, but nonetheless oh so right. As a man from much lower latitudes, much of Sweden looks unfamiliar to me, and Norrbotten is simply another world. In the waning days of a sunny summer, the looming darkness of an Artic winter was almost tangible in the air, up there at the edge of this other world. These will become available after the close of Series 2, a dessert of sorts. Until next time, keep your tanks full and your bags packed. I call shotgun! -c41shawn