Snapshots from Norway—a not particularly original title, but on the other hand, it is precisely the snapshot that determines the recording of a photographic image, regulates the amount of light, and one might say, the amount of emotion as well, although the latter is difficult to measure precisely.
Photography should convey emotions. As Donald McCullin used to say, “Photography is not about looking, it’s about feeling. If you don’t feel anything in what you’re looking at, you will never be able to make people feel anything when they look at your photographs.” The search for these emotions, and perceiving them in the world around us, is seemingly the photographer’s—and probably every artist’s—main calling.
For me, mountains evoke the greatest emotions—not necessarily high or popular ones. There I find a certain kind of personal space and light. I also like seemingly ugly places that inspire reflection. For someone else, an interesting subject for photographs might be horse races, sporting competitions, sunrises or “pretty” portraits. I do not reject such photographs; quite the contrary, I often admire them. However, contemporary mass digital photography often simply lacks craftsmanship and composition, while social media fuels a pursuit of kitsch, because in every field of art, kitsch is the most popular and causes the least controversy.
In my opinion, a print, book or catalogue is the best way to view photography. It is the photographic print—including a printed version—that is a new object capable of existing independently, while a digital file or negative is only a semi-finished product that may undergo many more transformations before achieving its final form. Leaving photographs solely in digital circulation often means that even the author does not know what the final image should look like. But that is just a small digression. Ultimately, the most important thing in photography is that it simply brings joy both to its creators and to its viewers. Even in places commonly regarded as “ugly,” it is often possible to take an excellent photograph. Everything depends on what you want to do with it.
Norway is certainly an extraordinary place. It offers space and highly distinctive light. Norway attracts travelers with the last untouched areas in Europe. It is home to the largest glacier on the continent, an endless plateau, and the longest and deepest fjord. An expedition to the North is not only a journey through space, but also through time.
In this extraordinary setting, masterpieces of Viking art, wooden churches and settlements have survived to this day. Trolls, nisse and hulders also live here, far from people. I asked myself whether, after spending only 216 hours here, I could create a photography exhibition about such a vast place. Many photographers have spent much longer in this country and visited places I did not, witnessed and photographed natural phenomena I had never even dreamed of.
The photographs I would like to present to you are not a geographical record, nor do they tell the story of the country—what can one say about a country in which one has spent 216 hours? Norway is more of a pretext for showing a certain atmosphere and reflecting on time and space. It is a kind of document of both a subjective selection of frames and the places visited.