After his successful debut monograph ‘Smoke’, Theo Elias (b. 1985, Sweden) now brings to the forefront a new photobook – Red / January 2021. A continuation of his exploration of themes dealing with love, seclusion, and existence in the environment of the Nordic landscape, however, this time in colour.
In January 2021, the artist was invited by the organisation Gamleby Photography for a one-month residency at Tjustbygden – a remote countryside area located in the south of Sweden. The place is already scarcely populated due to the dense forests that spread across the land and its far distance from Swedish major cities. Elias arrived when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, making Tjustbygden secluded and void of human presence more than ever. The conditions for creating were not ideal – all gatherings cancelled, only a few hours of daylight, and extreme weather conditions falling to -20°C.