Still Life of Teenagers

Still Life of Teenagers by Barbara Marstrand is a book that delves into the ways young people engage with the world through photographs of their homes. Centered around the teenage bedroom, the book offers a personal insight into contemporary Danish youth life.

Marstrand’s snapshots capture aspects of everyday life that we often take for granted or perhaps even overlook. Interiors, technology and everyday clutter fill the rooms with information and stories about the lives that unfold within and around them.

“Barbara Marstrand’s photo book offers a keenly observant sociological study of the Danish youth culture of today. What does it look like in the spaces of Danish teens, what do they like to surround themselves with, how do they aestheticise their everyday lives, what preoccupies them? Meanwhile, these details also function as traces of the life lived with and among the objects. We go hunting for signs in the pictures; we sense, feel and construct stories about the rooms’ inhabitants”. – from the opening essay by Mette Sandbye.

Barbara Marstrand (b. 1994) is a self-taught photographer with a degree in sociology from the University of Copenhagen. She is particularly interested in exploring people, places and objects rarely being portrayed, and which tell something unique about our culture and the present time. Still Life of Teenagers is her first book.

Shortlisted for The Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Award and Fotobus Library Award 2024