Mankind by Peter Wiklund, created between 2013 and 2017, places a solitary human figure in desolate natural environments across Sweden and Finland—notably outside Stockholm, and on the islands of Gotland and Åland—to explore the relationship between humanity and Nature. Using the landscape as a timeless stage, Wiklund constructs a vision that is both primordial and post-apocalyptic.
Mankind reflects cultural anxieties about ecological crisis and human vulnerability. It explores humankind's estrangement from the natural world and an uncertain future. Building on this, the series examines tensions between humanity and nature, peace and destruction, survival and surrender. The lone figure—Wiklund himself, though never a self-portrait—acts as a generalized human presence, at times frail or androgynous, at others resilient. He moves through a world that could be the distant past or a ruined future, evoking both myth and warning.
Visually, the project relies on stark, monochromatic imagery rendered through the pinhole process. Landscapes are stripped of identifiable context; skeletal trees and rough terrain frame scenes marked by distortion and abstraction. Compositions isolate the human form—a hand, a body, a silhouette—and allow light and time to warp perception. The tone is somber and surreal, with a haunting stillness that invites meditation on time, loss, and endurance.
Technically speaking, Wiklund uses both homemade and custom pinhole cameras, favoring their unpredictability. He shoots with outdated film stock and embraces imperfections introduced by chance. These choices align with his intent to create images that feel unresolved, open, and unrepeatable.
Mankind was exhibited in a juried pinhole photography show at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco, where it was praised for pushing the expressive limits of the medium.
