“During the world-famous photographer’s reportage assignments in Stockholm in the 1940s and onward, he captured the unexpected and the everyday in a city that today is largely gone. Such as the image of Tage Erlander in his new home in Marieberg in 1962. The Social Democratic leader of that time did not live on Ceaușescu-like estates, but in a rental apartment. Lennart Nilsson is one of Sweden’s foremost and most internationally acclaimed photographers, and his driving force has always been curiosity. Internationally, he is best known for his images from inside the human body.

In the exhibition "Någonstans i Stockholm" at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, we encounter Lennart Nilsson as a reportage photographer and a selection from his assignments in Stockholm of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. We meet everyday life and people on the street, familiar places, unknown environments, and a Stockholm in transformation, all captured with Lennart Nilsson’s blend of inquisitiveness, humanity, and artistic precision.

In around forty photographs, the city is shown from different perspectives: private, professional, official—each image has its own story. Lennart Nilsson takes us behind the scenes at places such as Riksbanken, where officials carried weapons and practiced marksmanship in the basement. Life at the banknote printing works on Norr Mälarstrand had never been documented or published before Lennart Nilsson arrived there. The female newspaper carrier Cay was accompanied by Lennart Nilsson during one of her shifts—the interest in working life follows him throughout his career. In the magnificent image of Gustaf V’s journey to his final resting place, we encounter a city in mourning. Small and large events, somewhere in Stockholm.

The exhibition offers many opportunities for pleasurable reflections on a bygone Stockholm, but also provides a unique insight into the everyday fieldwork of the reportage photographer Lennart Nilsson. His dedicated work as a reportage photographer for Veckojournalen and Se, and his varied photographic production, are presented in a new light.”

Text from Svenska Fotografers Förbund, May 30, 2008