Klum: “Covid is a bill of nature”

Photographer and filmmaker Mattias Klum exhibits at Fotografiska in Stockholm, with an exhibition on nature and the environment.Image: Anders Wiklund / TT

On a wall, some of the most poisonous snakes in the world open their breaches. In front of them, a cheetah plays with its mother and a young mountain gorilla looks at the camera.

– This is the story of the sun. I did that job for the New York Times, and then there were 750 mountain gorillas left in the world. Now there are more than 1,000, says Mattias Klum.

Unfortunately, the fate of the gorilla is one of the exceptions. The exhibition “Our time on earth” shows a world in which man has been harsh with both animals and nature. Mattias Klum made his way as a photographer at the age of 29 for National Geographic, and has been photographing for the magazine all over the world, for over 20 years.

– It is very clear when you visit the same place over time how we affect nature. If you’ve been to a rainforest in the 80’s and you’re coming back, it’s not safe for you to stay. And in Svalbard, the glacier has retreated half a kilometer, says Mattias Klum.

The exhibition at Fotografiska is not a retrospective, but a couple of reflections on the long career of Mattias Klum. He started taking pictures at age 12 and was also involved in environmental issues early on. He wants people to bridge the gap between the brain and the heart.

– Many of us know we have challenges, but there can be a huge gap between awareness and what we actually do in everyday life. Images, texts and even music have the ability to touch people. Because not everyone meets an indigenous people, comes face to face with a tiger or sees a gunshot, a bleeding elephant or a starving child. But an image or an article can make you think “now I’m warm”, he says and continues:

– This has been my cold for 35 years and I don’t mean to stop it.

However, since meeting his wife Iris five years ago, he has worked in a different way. The two have created the artist duo Alexandrov Klum, and now he weaves mythology, history and mysticism into a “more holistic narrative”. But the mysterious element is also present in his imagery: Mattias Klum likes images of landscapes where there are several layers, and where he has the sensation of looking through a keyhole, into another world.

“I’ve always liked taking those kinds of pictures,” he says.

Throughout his career, he has also lectured for everything from schoolchildren to royalty. He wants people to understand that when we divide nature unregulated, this leads to abrupt threshold effects.

– With the absurd pressure of humanity, the effects are exacerbated, because nature does not react linearly. As with covid-19: we have opened a box through deforestation and predation of endangered animals, which releases this “zoonosis” as is covid-19: therefore, it is a triggered virus by animals. It is like a bill of nature, he says and is surprised by the attitude of some people:

– When people talk sometimes, it is as if we can afford to choose, or as if nature is a hobby. But that is the basic premise of all humanity.

Mattias Klum still seems to see the world begin to wake up. Today, there are more and more opportunities to reduce your climate footprint, with new technologies and circular thinking in food production.

– We must find the paradigm shift, both individually and collectively. Political decisions are crucial and business leaders must be involved. This is very democratic: we are all necessary.