KARAOKE
Karaoke bars and clubs are casual entertainment up front, and, sometimes, facades for brothels, drug dens and massage parlors with a happy ending out back. They play an important social role and are relevant to the positive makeup of the neighbourhood, but they also become places of despair, loneliness and injustice. These images try to move within the space where the two opposite emotions meet.
Karaoke is a project, yet without end, spanning several Asian countries.
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INGVAR KENNE is an editorial and advertising photographer from Sweden. 15 years ago he moved to Australia to set up shop. He now divides his time between Sydney and New York. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Photography at the University of Gothenburg between 1988-1991. The same year he completed his studies Kenne had a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in Borås, Sweden. It was in 1992 Kenne published his first monograph – On the Side. An exhibition, with the same name, toured over a two year period. He then embarked on several journeys around the globe. The culmination was an around the world trip by motorcycle, resulting in his second monograph – Chasing Summer, for which Paul Theroux wrote the foreword.
In 2005 at the Cannes Lions festival, for an inaugural event called “New Photographers – The Hottest Talent Of Tomorrow”, Kenne was selected as one of 31 photographers worldwide, that were exhibited and discussed during a seminar. That exhibition toured throughout Europe and showed in New York.
His work has been exhibited worldwide in countries including England, France, Spain, Sweden, Italy and Australia. He has received several fellow ship Grants from the Arts Council of Sweden. In 2009 he won the National Photographic Portrait Prize at NPG in Canberra, Australia.
His work is currently included in the touring exhibition and book publication – Hijacked Vol. 2: Australia and Germany.
To view more of Kenne’s work visit his website.