Leading Nordic photographers raise 640 000 SEK for clean water and sanitation in East Africa

Renowned photographers Karolina Henke, Simon Cederquist, Hans Strand, and Lisen Stibeck donated exclusive artworks to go under the hammer at the Operakällaren Foundation gala, raising 640 000 SEK for clean water and sanitation in East Africa.

Abbe Ibrahim, CEO and owner of the esteemed restaurant Operakällaren in Stockholm, initiated Operakällaren Foundation in 2006 after visiting eastern Africa for a wedding. He saw the terrible living conditions of the local residents that had no access to water, and decided that he wanted to help. Since then, the foundation has helped to provide East African children with clean water and sanitation through various charity organisations, but partnered up specifically with WaterAid in 2018. WaterAid drills wells and installs water systems in communities, schools, and hospitals — subsequently changing and saving thousands of lives.

Last week Operakällaren Foundation held its 12th yearly charity gala at Operakällaren, where various initiatives and auctions were held to raise money for WaterAid. One of the auctions saw four exclusive photo art prints go under the hammer. Photographers Karolina Henke, Simon Cederquist, Hans Strand, and Lisen Stibeck donated one artwork each for the auction, with all proceedings going straight to WaterAid.

”Every minute a newborn dies from an infection from a lack of safe water and a clean environment. My contribution to WaterAid was a collodion wet plate image of my artwork ’Sheet Ice’, printed on silver gelatin. By working together, we can stop water-related illness” — LISEN STIBECK

Along with Stibeck’s photo art print, artworks ’Alex’ from Karolina Henke, ’A Diamond Eternity’ from Simon Cederquist, and ’Iceriver’ from Hans Strand all raised a whopping 640,000 SEK from auction-goers. The artworks were curated by the photography platform Picture This.

’Alex’ - Karolina Henke

’A Diamond Eternity’ - Simon Cederquist

’Sheet Ice’ - Lisen Stibeck

’Iceriver’ - Hans Strand.

”We’ve known about Operakällaren Foundation for years, and are very happy to be able to help and support their work. Out of the hundreds of photo artworks from our 53-name-long photographer roster, we wanted to choose four photographers that could attend the gala physically too. It was great to see the success of the auction”, says Oscar Otterborn, CEO and co-founder of Picture This.