White Sea Black Sea by Jens Olof Lasthein

Posted by Photo Slaves in PhotographersMay 8th, 2012 | no responses

The Iron Curtain is long gone, Germany is unified and the borders of the European Union continue to expand, yet the line between east and west in Europe still remains visible. Jens Olof Lasthein‘s project is a visual journey from the White Sea from Arkhangelska in the north to the Odessa Black Sea in the south – powerful tales of a boundary in transition. The Yalta Agreement gave the easternmost part of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union. Stolnitsy was split down the middle, right over the main street, with barbed wire, mine fields and a guard tower. The minefields are gone and the old guard tower stands empty, but the cruel wire fence is still there, patrolled now by Ukrainian border guards on this side and Slovakian EU soldiers on the other.

Born 1964 in Sweden, Jens Olof Lasthein grew up in Denmark and now lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Freelance photographer working primarily with reportages and portraits for magazines and newspapers as well as self initiated projects. Even working as a lecture and a workshop leader in Sweden as well as abroad/His book Moments in Between – Pictures from Former Yugoslavia (Journal 2000) was selected by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger for The Photobook: A History, Volume II (Phaidon 2006).