Anna Clarén

She leads the Nordens Folkhögskola Biskops-Arnö (Nordic Photography School).

Clarén was born in 1972 in Valje, Sweden and grew up in Lund, Scania. She studied photojournalism from 1994 to 1996 at Nordens Folkhögskola Biskops-Arnö, Sweden.

Clarén worked as a photographer from 1997, including as a press photographer for Aftonbladet and Icakuriren, and making work for magazines and books. She now leads the Nordens Folkhögskola Biskops-Arnö, where she has been a head teacher since 2006. Holding (2006) is a visual diary created over four months that "portrays the people and places in Clarén's immediate surroundings". It is included in Parr and Badger's The Photobook: A History, Volume III, where it is described as containing "portraits, interiors, still lifes and landscapes — that together seem to make up a mysterious narrative. The style is diffuse and the images high key, washed-out in colour and frequently blue-tinged, which suggests they have only one foot in reality, and that the narrative is raking through old memories, or is a dream." With Close to Home (2013) Clarén "documented herself as pregnant, her children, and the people and surroundings close to her home." When Everything Changed (2018) was made from the point her third child was diagnosed with autism; "we then follow the family and glimpse the different ways they deal with the situation", from 2013 to 2017.

• Holding, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen, France, 2008/9 • Holding, The House of Culture, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008 • When Everything Changed, Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018

• A Way of Life: Swedish Photography from Christer Strömholm until Today, Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö, Sweden, 2014; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2014/15. With work by Christer Strömholm, Clarén, Martin Bogren, JH Engström, Kenneth Gustavsson, Gerry Johansson, Tuija Lindström, Anders Petersen, Inta Ruka, Gunnar Smoliansky, Lars Tunbjörk, and others.