19/07/2018 Severine Grosjean
Faith, in many forms, remains alive in all generations, including the younger. The religion is a structuring element of the identity and today for the young people, anxious for their image, it is difficult for them to affirm their faith. Toms Harjo, a young photographer, decided to expose his own experience as a Jehovah’s Witness, best known for their famous door-to-door evangelism activity, and by the Bible in the hand. The work of the young Latvian photographer Toms Harjo reveals, without defend or explain, these “places” to express themselves and to grow.
The series of photographs interweave portraits and landscapes. Winter, freezing and simplicity, the images convey a raw and true beauty. The photographic work of Toms consists in taking pictures of symbolic places, through the individual portrait of these young people who live and build themselves in the faith. There is indeed a real stake in the relation to the subject treated. He gives a status to spaces, objects and of course to the people he represents.
He captures the inner truth and constructs a collective portrait of a community. Solemn, the photographs teach on one side the banal of an “unconventional” freedom and on the other side a whole system of moral values and eternal laws like this picture where a young man supports a cigarette with his nose. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not smoke to avoid defiling the body. This photograph explores difficult situations, like all young people, where one approaches his inner struggles without transgressing them. To gain distance and not fall into documentary, Toms Harjo decided to take models not belonging to the congregation. These young men, used as reflections of the young photographer are intense. Their attitudes, kneeling on the ice or sitting
staring, do not seem natural. They are different as separated from the rest of society. Pilloried, one of the photos shows a young Witness confronted with the rest of society. How to be a young believer and live according to your beliefs without feeling an outcast? Each individual photography is a cross between a personal, private, intimate portrait and the link to the collective history.
In the sea, the bath emptied, many are the photographs referring to baptism. For a Jehovah’s Witness, baptism is the most important moment of his life. Toms Harjo represents recognizable religious practices that have been stripped down to be “revealed”.
The viewer observes a project where dedication, routines and rituals, and community can be understood honestly. Toms Harjo passes, subtly, behind the facade and relates a lonely road. The images interact with each other. The attention of the exhibition is drawn to the evocative capacity of each of his images, charged with great visual beauty and a strong lyricism where spirituality and young people are inevitably united. Toms Harjo finds the balance so that everyone, believer or not, looks and approaches inner and perennial convictions. The exhibition “In the Thuth” is a personal story of a young Jehovah’s Witness and a confrontation to faith in an increasingly secular world.
Partnership: The Nomads Creative Projects
