M.H. Frøslev
Unsettled City

Unsettled City is a dark photographic essay on the encounter between a human and a restless metropolis. Danish photographer M.H. Frøslev depict a claustrophobic environment with the cityscape as framework, captured over a decade in the cities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Here we meet bulldogs, street fights and abandoned roads alongside loving glances, intimate moments and faded buildings, all quietly standing still, waiting for the night to die down and the light to rise again. Through disquieting atmospheres and raw sensitivity Unsettled City shows us how the people of the night alternately love and fear both the city and each other. With this book M.H. Frøslev portrays feelings of alienation, inequality and pain on a par with love, intimacy and fascination.

I believe in photography as a state of mind. As a narrator, I am looking for a place I can relate to and that moves me. These photographs are based on my own life and relations. I photograph because it helps me understand my feelings. I photograph my longing, my presence, my love and my fears. My photography is my encounter with the metropolis but it is also a rediscovery of myself and an examination of the feelings and relations that are associated with being linked to another person, a place and a time. – M.H. Frøslev

Born 1988 in Copenhagen, Denmark. M.H. Frøslev worked in 2008 as photographic assistant for Danish Magnum photographer Jacob Aue Sobol in Copenhagen but moved initially in 2010 to Moscow and later to Saint Petersburg where he started the project Unsettled City. His infatuation with picture-making led M.H. Frøslev to explore the silent and haunting experience of walking the streets after dark. Here he developed his photographic sense and his intimate relationship with the Russian cities. M.H. Frøslev lives and works between Copenhagen and Saint Petersburg.

  • Embossed hardback with linen spine
  • ISBN 978-87-970520-1-3
  • 21.5 × 28.5cm
  • 95 monochrome and color plates
  • 128 pages
  • Published February 2019
  • Edition of 800
  • Printed in Denmark by Narayana Press

Press:
Photobooks of 2019: Todd Hido (UK, English)
Fisheye Magazine (FR, French)
Politiken (DK, Danish)
The Eye of Photography (FR, French/English)
Dansk Dokumentarisme (DK, Danish)
Burn Magazine (US, English)
Weekendavisen (DK, Danish)

Artist
M.H. Frøslev

Download
Press Kit

Graphic design
Spine Studio