Hannah Modigh achieved international attention through sensitive, poetic photo essays of people in crisis on the margins of society. For twenty years, the Swedish photographer also worked in shelters for homeless women. From 2018 to 2022, she produced a new series of photographs, archive of the longing.
“Photography as proof of existence and a woman’s poem made me think that I could give something back through the very act of taking a photograph.”
Modigh set up a simple photo studio in the homeless shelters Klaragården and Boklara, and in four years an impressive series of 55 portraits was created. Visible marks on the women indicate an earlier event, but leave a mystery. “The women I photographed are without a home, but a home is not only physical, a home is to feel at home with oneself. The most obvious common denominator is a longing.” (Modigh)

Hannah Modigh, *1980 in Stockholm, lives and works in the USA and Stockholm.