In Sweden, teenage boys and girls aged 15 to 18 use a Swedish law, which allows them to drive a car if it can be registered as a tractor. The Epa tractors (officially called A tractors) give young people a unique freedom and an opportunity to live more independently of their parents.
The Epa tractors are like a step from childhood to adulthood. They reflect the owner’s personality and interests – with changing colours, scents and sounds just like teenage life itself. The tractors become a way to experiment with adult life, without really being there yet.
In each portrait, we meet a young person and get a glimpse of their individual story. Between the portraits also arises a common story about a youth culture, about a generation and about a country. The documentation is a way to portray the teenagers and the physical manifestation of epa life as it looks today, but is also an archive and a time capsule for future generations.
For 4 years, photographer Benjamin Nørskov has traveled across large parts of Sweden to meet and photograph epa owners. Nørskov’s way of portraying the young people testifies to the respect he has for them and where they are in life. We meet them at eye level and are allowed to step into a world we are otherwise cut off from. The corollary thus opens up a space for dialogue and greater mutual understanding in our time.
