Nicklas Svartengren, The Meinkings (PEOPLE 2025)

Web:

www.svartengren.com

Today as much as ever we humans need legends and heroes to get through the day. If for no other reason so to maintain some small fragments of hope the inhabited world can be a place worth saving. A place where the inclusive, the good and decent wins over demagoguery, violence, disrespect and petty quests for dominance. Whether the legends and heroes are living or dead, fictious or real are of less concern to most of us. We cling to the idea of a savior, a righteous warrior willing to fight our fight. We cling to it with all we got and then some. Perhaps we even prefer the more fictious legends and heroes as they might also offer an escape route for our personal short comings. We can´t possibly do what they can and ergo, why even try? The heroes in this series of portraits are all real and very, very fictious. They are exactly what you see and absolute honest figments of my imagination. They have all the faculties and superpowers we need them to have. Yet, they are as lost and weak as you and I.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.