Steel Work City

Through muted colours and sombre depictions, photographer Rikard Laving documents scenes, structures and inhabitants in Oxelösund, a Swedish town dominated by a massive steel works run by SSAB. Schools, homes, landscapes, public buildings and of course the steel works themselves are all washed in a cold and lifeless light. Class portraits of school children and teams of mill workers are shown in static groupings against neutral white backgrounds. Buildings are uninspiring and emotionless. It is an overall bleak impression of life in a small steel town.