Beyond the Mirror is the second book by Leif Sandberg released end of 2018. Happening after death, with death still indeed present, his new book has biographical elements such as photos from Leif’s several crossings through Camino de Santiago in Spain, family and intimate photos and also a touch of sci-fi.

Leif Sandberg

Life took a real turn when Leif Sandberg at the age of 64 learned that he might have pancreatic cancer. During the struggle that followed, he initiated a project where he, through the use of images, conveyed not only the emotional roller-coaster of dealing with the illness, but also the coming to terms with the harsh realization that the aging process had really taken its toll. He always enjoyed a general interest in art, which led him to enroll in art history and philosophy courses at the Stockholm University when well into his fifties. When his life later pivoted as a result of cancer, he suddenly felt the need to also create something himself.

From the start, the focus was not only on dealing with the fact that life was coming to an end – a thought stemming from the anxiety attacks brought on by years of career stress. The act of photographing also constituted a form of therapy, and the images also came to depict the true significance of his forty-year relationship with his partner. It’s really about how you piece it all together. The anxiety attacks in the wake of the realization that one is aging rapidly, while at the same time seeing the light in a relationship. His images are more about the thoughts triggered by the disease than the disease itself.

Leif’s approach is self-reflection, often with himself as the photo object. Ideas are created in the present and are developed associativity in order to explore the unconscious. It has relationship to surrealism. In post production the images are searched for expressions and values that are perceived as essential and which invites the viewers’ participation.