What Is Photoromance?
The idea of a photographic novel is not original with me. However, in 1978 I did invent a special approach to the photographic novel that I call Photoromance. Most conventional photographic fiction takes a comic strip or cinematic approach. Photoromance assumes an actual, prior illustrated novel the text of which is missing or has been willfully suppressed, leaving the reader to recreate the story on his own.
The protagonist of STRØMME is an old Norwegian cardboard suitcase. I began photographing this suitcase in 1979. At the time I thought it'd be amusing to parody the tendency photographers have of arbitrarily limiting their subject matter to, say, scenes shot on a particular street, pictures of the moon, or all too often, themselves. The suitcase seemed a perfect subject because it was of no visual interest; at the same time I felt it 'had character.'
As it turned out the joke was on me. For six years I photographed the suitcase and little else. In August of 1985 I flew to Oslo where the final pictures of Strømme were taken.
The book's title, STRØMME, is pronounced "Struh-mah." It is the family name of the people who originally owned the suitcase.
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