Front cover, image source: Multinational Enterprises

Notes

Includes a laminated insert with text by Sara R. Yazdani

Publisher Note

Portraits by Waiters contains images of Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson posing in front of his own camera in different rooms, on different occasions. In his exploration of photography as a means of documentation and the contemporary use and status of the medium, Jóhannsson has created a visual diary of himself.

On every evening during an eight-week residency in Cologne, Germany, Jóhannsson asked waiters and waitresses to capture his portrait while eating dinner.

By posing in front of the camera, Jóhannsson reverses the role of the artist and the role of the photographic sitter. The operator is replaced by an anonymous person who, uncontrolled and forced, is capturing a portrait of the artist who consequently becomes the subject of the image. In this sense he removes himself from authorship.

Artists’ Book

Portraits by Waiters

by Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson

Publisher self-published
Release Place Oslo, Norway
Edition 1st edition
Release Date 2013
Credits
Printrun 250
Work  
Subform Photobook
Topics Food, Interior Archtitecture, Selfportraits
Dimensions 14.8 × 20.0 × 0.8 cm
Pages 120
Technique Digital Print