Weltschmerz

We live in times marked by authoritarianism, violence, and a disregard for human rights. The world feels divided and paralyzed, and this climate of uncertainty takes photographer Jens Olof Lasthein back to another tumultuous time. In the winter of 1991–92, Lasthein walked up and down Stockholm’s main pedestrian street, Drottninggatan, photographing people. He felt uneasy as his immediate world grew increasingly unsettled. The war in Croatia was clearly about to spread to Bosnia, the true melting pot of the former Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union was dissolving and formally ceased to exist on New Year’s Eve. At the same time, a man who came to be known as the “Laser Man” had begun shooting immigrants in Stockholm. With his camera’s standard lens and focus fixed at one meter, Lasthein reacts quickly and intuitively—one flash exposure per person as they pass by. Some notice him, but most are so deeply lost in their own thoughts that they do not realize they are being captured on film. Everyone has their own story, their own small world, yet everyone threads their way through the crowd. The individual. The collective. And the shared world, fragmented and diverse though it may be. In the photographs, Lasthein saw reflections of his own unease. Now, 34 years later, those expressions mirror Lasthein’s state of mind today. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is entering its fifth year with undiminished force. Israel’s government continues to bomb, displace, and starve the Palestinian population. Democratic principles and international law are being abandoned in the United States, while the climate crisis accelerates. Amid all this, individuals move through their own small worlds, carrying their worries alone.