Josefin Hardinger

Hardinger’s surrealist images challenge the concept that photos should mirror reality. The 21-year-old from Gothenburg, Sweden spends hours in post-production on each photo. She began photography at age 10, when she received a digital camera for Christmas. Hardinger always uses people she knows as models, including herself. Many of her photos enlarge the heads of subjects so that they don’t quite match up with the body and make the viewer look twice. Eyes are widened and separated to look doe-like in a decidedly creepy fashion. The work provides a timely commentary on notions of beauty, especially in this day of airbrushing and Photoshopping.

Josefin Hardinger debuted her first stateside exhibit at the Maidstone Hotel, East Hampton in May 2015.