Actor and comedian Johan Rheborg has photographed his colleagues from theatre and film for many years. Mostly this has occurred behind the scenes, when the actor is waiting to enter the stage, during pauses when filming, or in the box before or after a show. Now Rheborg’s photos are put on display in Kalmar Castle, in the exhibition Backstage.
Being an actor, Rheborg has access to the rooms behind the stage as well as to the people who have chosen to spend a large portion of their lives there. When Rheborg leaves the theatre stage and enters this familiar environment he changes his perspective and becomes a spectator himself. Quietly and without ado, but empathically in classic documentary fashion, he captures the moment as it appears. Someone intently typing away on their mobile phone, a final checking of the script, a glance at the character in the dressing-room mirror. A gaze right into the camera, that sees past the observer, but which is just as much directed inwards, to the inner core of one’s being.
That moment of intense concentration and seriousness one experiences before going out on stage is what Rheborg constantly returns to and explores in his pictures. It is a bubble of soundless anticipation and time grinding to a halt. The confidence of his colleagues, and his own personal relationship to it, allows Rheborg to access this silent room of pure energy.
Curator: Thomas Wågström
