These images were shot during the general rehearsal at Inkonst. The stage was drenched in pink, the neon holding everything together, the bodies moving in and out of it.
I shoot on stage, with the performers. Inside the work, moving through it as it happens. You change position constantly, get close, shift your angle in response to what the body in front of you is doing. It feels like dancing with them. My background as a dancer makes a real difference: reading the body before it moves, anticipating where the weight is going, knowing how long a pause will last. The camera follows from that understanding rather than chasing after the fact.
Haunted Desires is built from three gay men diving into their feeds, looking at what we all look at too much. In a raw exploration of digital algorithms, body ideals, and the invisible communication shaping our reality, the piece digs into a mass production of material that constantly overwhelms. Through the reflections of their screens, the choreography tracks three beings caught in their seemingly random scrolling. By wallowing in desires and inhibitions, images and feelings are explored in a series of scenes that are as fragile as they are intense. Björn Säfsten continues his inquiry into humanity's failure in communication, here directed specifically at iconography created by men who wish to be desired by other men. On stage, the autobiographical merges with the fictional, the sought-after with the real. The thing that you desire, perhaps you must become.
The piece was created in residence at Inkonst and at La Caldera Centre de Creació de Dansa in Barcelona, co-produced by Inkonst and Dansens Hus, with support from the Swedish Arts Council, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, the City of Stockholm, and Region Stockholm. It premiered at Inkonst in Malmö in March 2025. The photographs were made with the Inkonst cast: Pär Andersson, Philip Berlin, and Sam Huczkowski.
