josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Harri Pälviranta - Battered, Kult Books, 2022, Stockholm

Hardcover cloth bound with a tipped in photograph, edition of 300 copies.

Assaults and street fights are everyday activities on weekend nights in Finland. People have a strong tendency to get rather intoxicated when partying and, once drunk, they are released from their inhibitions. Aggression turns into physical acts, to direct violence. There is a social awareness of this topic in Finland. The issue is recognized, and it is considered to be a severe social problem. But the discussion has mainly literal dimensions; it appears in news headlines, and it is discussed in seminars.

In the book Battered the Finnish Photographer Harri Pälviranta shows the real faces of street violence in Finland. In contrast to the stereotypic portrayals of male heroics and the worn-out attempts at shocking people, Pälviranta deals with the utmost banality inherent in violence.

Battered is a project first exhibited in December 2007, and since then pictures from the series have been appeared in tens of exhibitions around the world. Currently 15 pictures from the Battered series are exhibited in the National Museum of Contemporary Art MNAC in Lisbon as part of a bigger solo show by Harri Pälviranta. Even though vastly exhibited, Battered has never been available as a book. This situation is now corrected.

Order at Kult Books.

Pages: 64
Place: Stockholm
Year: 2022
Publisher: Kult Books
Size: 29 x 29 cm (approx.)