OSTERLANDET, Review by Szilvia Gogh

A one-of-a-kind book comparing past and present. A stunning contrast is drawn between two generations of travel and photography, as two friends venture through Egypt and Jerusalem retracing the artistic life of an enigmatic relative. Osterlandet is not your average photographic journey through Egypt and Jerusalem. Osterlandet, which translates to "The Orient" in old Swedish, is a stunning, visual narrative that combines two generations of travel and photography.

The book tells an amazing story about Mattias Satters, who discovered his great-grandfather, Algot's legacy in a box full of journals, letters and negatives. The items told a story dating back to 1903, when Algot left Sweden to live in Egypt and Jerusalem. "I wanted to experience and tell Algot's story", said Satters who embarks on a journey with his friend Smith. Together, they retrace Algot's steps exactly one hundred years after Algot arrived. Satters enlisted the aide of his friend and fellow photographer Mark Smith to collaborate on the project that landed them in Alexandria. What they were able to capture and culminate in photographs is one of the first books in its kind.

The book tells an eye opening story about a century of change in that part of the world, and fosters the bonds between generations by gaining a sense of one's heritage. It also explores the growth of Islamic activism and what it has meant to the country and how it relates back to the United States. "As photographers, we wanted to compare and contrast the Egypt of Algot's era with present-day Egypt," says Smith.

Osterlandet is more than simply a collection of images; it tells the amazing story of a country that has undergone a century of change. What I liked the most about the book was not that I could see pictures of the same monuments in 1903 in comparison with 2003, but the notes at the Catalog of Images explaining what the photographer tried to document.