Jonas Esteban Isfält is an artist working with various forms of lens-based media and self-publishing.
Isfält studied photography at ICP in New York, (-98) and has been freelancing in different capacities since then. Coming from a classic documentary background and mainly portrait assignments in freelancing, Isfält has, in the last few years, been aiming to straddle the genres of documentary and fine art photography by utilizing modus operandi and aesthetics drawn from both genres—often leaning toward still life images. Isfält is interested in the idea of when the “now” turns into history, or when an object, no matter how new, can be called an artifact. In collecting images of objects around him his work tries to create images that depict objects and places with a documentary and archeological eye.
One of the conceptual foundations in Isfälts work is an interest in history and politics. The digital revolution has changed both our how we live our lives and how we see the world; more and more through images consisting of ones and zeros as opposed to the physical originals of the past. If the industrial revolution and the birth of photography have shaped the world we lived in until recently, the digital revolution and photography’s transition from analog to digital is what is going to shape our future.
In May 2017 Jonas Esteban Isfält founded the small imprint Fuzzy Logic Press as a platform for self-published work and small run print production. FLP has released 5 publications, all in small editions and is currently working on a publication by Flemming Ove Bech, co-published with Bechs Lodret Vandret imprint. Also in the pipeline is a publication with Swedish artist Björn Kjelltoft.
Isfält has a B.F.A. (-05) and an M.F.A. (-15) from Valand Academy, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mnemonic Knuckles
In the summer of 2015, my mother got a sore throat. In December she lost her struggle with what turned out to be a rare form of lung cancer. One year later, almost to the day, I got a different cancer diagnosis. I have since gotten treatment and am well again.
Mnemonic Knuckles is the attempt to visualize these past two years of a mental roller coaster. The loose collection of images tries, by way of association, to visualize the way the world seemed to be askew, familiar, but strange. A sublime feeling of a constant glitch.
When my mother got sick I had just finished my M.F.A., and the many ideas that I wanted to realize got put on the back burner—but I somehow kept working and make images. And after my own treatment this winter I got to work putting together the heap of images into some sort of (in)coherent visual story.
To view more of Jonas’ work please visit his website.