|
The Face No 22 November 1998 Look who's stalking Ulf Lundin spent a year hiding in the bushes spying on one man's family. But he's not a pervert. He's an artist. Somewhere in a small, well-to-do city in Sweden (we can't be sure of where exactly, but we know it to be in the west, not far from Gothenburg), two boys grow up together. One, Ulf Lundin, is quite shy. The other, Ulf's best friend, is a little more precocious. The pair come to attend the same school, and Ulf soon find himself, quite happily, falling in to his friend's shadow. It's his friend who is more popular with girls. Who manages to steal all the cool bits and pieces to customise his bike. Who is always getting in to scrapes. "that boy", say the teachers, over and over, "will never amount to much". But it comes to pass the teachers are proved wrong. In the years that follow, Ulf's friend finds himself settling down. He has a successful job and buys a big terraced house, brand new. He marries and has two sons. Ulf, on the other hand, finds himself impoverished. Single. Alone. Living in a bedsit. And Ulf starts to wonder about his friend. He starts to wonder what it would be like if he lived his friend's life instead of his own. So, in february 1995, he and that friend meet up. Together they draw a contract. The contract states that for a year exactly Ulf will be allowed to photograph his friend and his friend's family, so long as he is never seen. And from that day Ulf spends his waking hours hiding in the bushes with his camera. Waiting hours in the snow for his friend's kids to take out the garbage. He learns this man's routine. Up at 6.30. Kids to school. Lunch at 11.30. Weekends: breakfast on the balcony and barbecues with neighbours. Did he never think of giving up? "Yes. Of course I did," says Ulf. "Hundreds of thousands of times. It got quite... awful. But it was important just to stand out there looking and thinking. Ulf wants his friend to remain anonymus, but this November he exhibits his pictures in Britain for the first time. And he says he's happier now. "I was pleased when (that year) finished. But sometimes I miss it. It was sometimed very exciting. To follow them into the forest when they were picking mushrooms. It was a opportunity to play. To play as grown up." Johnny Davis |