Before scrolling down to look at my work:
Every artist wants to spend time creating - to do even more of this I have started crowd funding with Patreon. Click the button to come to my page. Here I post exclusive material about photography, my process and you can also get a copy of my zine No One.
Solo show at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo. The works are presented with printing artifacts.
One silver gelatin print among the analog c-prints to change the story up a little.
Solo show at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo. The works are presented with printing artifacts.
Wunderkammer; also known as Pride Art, 2021 happened when we all believed the pandemic may be over. It became pure energy, heated and saturated, joie de vivre after months of fear, an explosion of hope.
These are photographs of what was called a mini-ball, a Norwegian version of the American ball and "house" culture. The feel is different, not so much poverty, but there are destinies here as well, lives lived and dreams being dreamt. Poignant in a different way, human and that night full of love and hope and exuberance in spite of everything.
For me, an interesting aspect is also the audience and how we look at a performance - quite a bit through the lens of our mobile phones.
I had left NYC a few months before due to covid. In NYC I had photographed dance and ballet. After coming to Oslo, I just stopped out of grief. The world had turned upside down and is now doing the same again, but that night due to the love of my friends, I again photographed dance.
Tønsbergs Arbeiderforening er min «funny valentine» et for meg mystisk sted som jeg kommer tilbake til igjen og igjen. Stedet er fullt av historier, og disse er ikke «bare» lokale, men nasjonale og internasjonale fordi de handler om menneskelighet, levd liv, valg og kommunikasjon.
Jeg kom fra USA med ett av de siste ordinære flyene før Covid-pandemien virkelig tok tak i verden, og mens enda trodde dette skulle bli en hard influensa. De tre månedene jeg trodde oppholdet skulle vare, varer enda og alt har blitt forandret for meg også, faktisk på alle plan.-Samtidig fikk jeg høre at huset til Tønsbergs Arbeider Forening var solgt. Jeg svingte meg rundt og fikk laget bilder - for dette unike stedet forsvant for godt, i en stil som vel kan kalles personlig dokumentarisme. Prosjektet ga det å komme tilbake til Norge mening for meg. Jeg hadde angret resten av livet, hadde jeg ikke laget disse bildene.
The book Tønsbergs Arbeiderforening has received grants from Stiftelsen Fritt Ord/The Fritt Ord Foundation, Kulturrådet/Arts and Culture Norway and Tønsberg County.
After raising nine guinea pigs, seeing their courage and kindness, I fell in love. It was a personal journey, getting to know their personalities, seeing feelings and needs, interactions among them and their family quarrels. I started to see myself in a broader perspective. Eating meat became impossible. The guinea pigs became my brothers and sisters. We suddenly had a family within the family. We listened to their sounds and imagined interpretations. At one point, I found five of them in the kitchen, lying in a circle facing each other, one making the mystical chirping sound that humans do not understand, the others listening intently. It was pure enigma for me and the beginning of knowledge.
On an everyday basis, they remind me that there is such a thing as unconditional love and that nature does very well without us, but we can not do without nature.
Let me tell you about winds
Samples of portraiture I have enjoyed working on.
As a former musician, the study of tonality and form is important to me, as is the flow of the melodic line. Music is a way of saying without really saying, a medium to hide oneself to reveal oneself. It gives immense freedom but the freedom is contained, pared-down, as it is in photography. In photography, singular objects can be the means for looking without telling, for asking questions without giving answers. Curtain, Towel, Flower Table Cloth; the examination of these simple objects in time, as they are touched by light, gives the viewer the power to see in darkness.
The Poetics of Flux
Change is the giver of dizziness. It is also the only thing we can truly count on. It throws us around, confuses us, and forces us to lose control. It has the strength of furious, running water. You can not resist if you want to survive, you do not know what will happen, you have to go with the flow. Change is enigma.
All the photographs are analog - shot on film - worked in the darkroom. What you see here are installation shots of silver-gelatin prints.
Please use a screen on the brighter side to get the highlights properly.
The Knitted Condom is a small photobook - 19x14 cm, handsown with linen thread. It is made in 100 numbered and signed copies. It is available from Tronsmo Bokhandel in Oslo or directly from me.
No One is my new little book. Photography and haiku-like text. It is NOK 200 + postage and can be ordered using kbacke19@students.icp.edu or bought at the museum shop at Hå Gamle Prestegård or Tronsmo Bookshop in Oslo. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
The zine can be bought directly from me, at ArtBook Book Shop in London and at B*stard Artbook Fair in Lillehammer in June 2022. It is also to be found at The Griffin Museum library and at The Center for Book Arts in NYC.
Tønsbergs Arbeiderforening (Tønsberg’s Worker’s Club) - access to club premises only for members.