Foreword

Disko Bay is thrilled to present HRTLND by Danish photographer Mads Holm. The book is an exploration of life in our rapidly changing world, captured across 20 European and North American countries over the last decade. Through images of urban life, demonstrations, migration and a new military training facility, the book reflects on the paradoxes and tensions shaping modern society, highlighting the double bind between security and control, freedom and surveillance, and the gradual militarization of everyday life.

The book presents a hyperreal landscape where the ordinary is interwoven with the unsettling, challenging the viewer to question what is visible and what remains obscured. In one photo, a child casually bears an assault rifle. In another, a woman dons a garish gas mask, a large drink, and a tote bag in her hands, as she goes about her day. Both these photos bear their abnormalities as if commonplace. The reality is that in our modern times, these abnormalities are only becoming more and more common. In HRTLND Holm captures the undercurrents of global capitalism, militarization, and societal fragmentation, offering a layered narrative that is as much an artistic statement as it is a political act.

Featuring a foreword by acclaimed photographer Donald Weber and five reflective texts by Holm, HRTLND is a profound visual chronicle of our collective condition, offering a stark portrait of the times as of now. The object is a lay-flat softcover wrapped in a French poster jacket with a UTM world map printed on the back. The UTM map are the most used coordinate system in the context of military mission planning. In HRTLND it is highlighting the precise position of each image.