Filling in the Gaps
Marcus Gustafsson
Kult Books
English
Hardcover
96 pages
215 × 280 mm
2025
ISBN 9789199023519
In his debut book Filling in the Gaps, Marcus Gustafsson explores a deeply personal and complex narrative about his father’s alcoholism and its impact on himself and his family. The project reconciles fragmented memories to better understand the circumstances that have shaped his life and relationships, while also serving as an effort toward healing and reconnecting with his fractured family. It confronts the duality of growing up with an alcoholic parent—the struggle to break free while remaining bound by a shared history—and the void left behind when the family’s unifying figure is gone. The work examines how addiction alters family dynamics, leaves lasting marks, and challenges the possibility of moving forward.
In Filling in the Gaps, Marcus combines his own images with archival family photographs. His visual language is raw yet stylized, documenting his father’s daily life and surroundings while also turning the camera toward himself, reflecting the tension between reality and memory. Altered family photos— taped or drawn over—become acts of reclamation, as he infuses inherited memories with his own voice.
(Source: https://www.marcusgustafsson.com/filing-in-the-gaps)
About the Artist
Marcus Gustafsson (b. 1990) is a photographer and artist based in Stockholm. His work is deeply autobiographical and centers on memory, intimacy, and identity. Through long-term projects, he explores these themes, often in relation to his own family, upbringing, and places of personal significance. His practice is grounded in recurring processes—returning to images, places, and emotions that reflect the layered and non-linear nature of memory.
https://marcusgustafsson.com
(Source: https://www.marcusgustafsson.com/about)
About the Publisher
Kult Books is an independent publishing project for photography and other lens-based visual arts founded by Janne Riikonen in Stockholm, Sweden. Kult Books publishes monographs and artist books that embrace a personal artistic vision and visual language. The publications are created in close collaboration with the artists, the physical form designed to support the concept of the work.
www.kultbooks.com
(Source: www.kultbooks.com/about)
