2_1_ScanMag_79_August_2015_Text.qxp_Scan Magazine 1 06/08/2015 17:07 Page 74
Scan Magazine | Attraction of the Month | Sweden
Attraction of the Month, Sweden
Affordable, approachable and astonishing photographic art The passion for photography started in New York in 1996 with the purchase of five original prints from the 1920s. Founders of LUMAS, Stefanie Harig and Marc Ullrich, opened a Brick-and-mortar gallery in 2003 in the hopes of spreading their enthusiasm and enabling people to experience and acquire the phenomenal art of photography. Today LUMAS has expanded into over 40 venues world-wide and the Stockholm gallery is by no means straying from the original vision. They strive to make highquality photographic art affordable and approachable to anybody who fancies to broaden their artistic horizons, no matter what background or previous cultural cultivation. By Astrid Eriksson | Photos: LUMAS
The art of photography has always been an art of the people; relatable and approachable. A slice of life captured in a, not rarely, stunning matter, triggering feelings, afterthought or simply just an admiration of how phenomenal life can be captured through a lens. However, like plenty of other art forms, photography has in many circles become a high brow past time, where people who can afford it are the cho-
74 | Issue 79 | August 2015
sen few who can also enjoy it in their own homes. Luckily, LUMAS is on a mission to bring it all back to a wider audience of art enthusiasts and young collectors. Affordable, approachable and astonishing Visiting LUMAS is more like visiting a photographic art collector's living room, rather than a gallery or boutique. The idea is to put the art into an everyday context and
give a sense of how the art would look in your own home. And hanging a LUMAS piece on your own wall is far from unrealistic. Where many art galleries focus on selling highly exclusive photographs, or small limited collections to established collectors or museums, LUMAS work with hand-signed originals in limited editions, usually of 75-150 photos in order to make them affordable to more people. With the same high quality as their competition, but with lower prices, they welcome curious visitors and new collectors and will this autumn host lectures and events for those interested in the picturesque art scene. The appreciation of LUMAS and their concept has been on a grand scale world-wide, something Sophie Tillquist, Gallery Director in Stockholm, Sweden, explains partly with the growing interest in photography as a whole. “The global interest for amateur