Tipp 1 (AS Syd-Varanger) (2022)
triptych
analogue b/w 65x24mm standing panoramic photography
printed on roll-ups, 3 pieces 200x85cm

Multemyr (Skrøytnes) (2022)
triptych
analogue b/w 65x24mm standing panoramic photography

On Landscapes (2022-) is a series of standing panoramic photographic triptycks where I investigate our relationship to the landscape in how we use it and how we represent it. Inspired by Chinese and Japanese landscape paintings on hanging scrolls I’ve twisted the traditional Western lying landscape format. Using a special panoramic camera made specially to photograph landscapes, I’ve tilted it and photographed the landscape in three consecutive photos while panning it. Can the format and representation of the motif change they way we look at it?

The triptych “Tipp 1 (AS Syd-Varanger)” shows one of the gigantic tipps of one of Norway’s biggest iron mines, situated outside the town of Kirkenes in Northern Norway. Upon visiting the mine in spring 2022, it was inactive but it was in a process of reopening. This created both optimism and critical reactions in the local society and nationally. Jobs can be created, and nature can be destroyed. The focus today from most mining companies is that this is necessary to support the Green Shift. We need the metals and minerals if we want to reach our goals of a greener and more sustainable future. But at what cost? And what actually happens with our relationship to landscape? Can an industrial landscape, a man-shaped landscape maybe also be beautiful or sublime? And how does that affect the way we think of and interact with it?

“Multemyr (Skrøytnes)” is a triptych of one of the many commercial cloud berry picking fields in the region of Finnmark. Finnmark has a long and special historical use of the landscape which differ from Norway’s well know “allemannsretten”, the Norwegian right to roam the countryside. Only people living in Finnmark can commercially pick and sell cloud berries, and many of the marshes where they grow are fenced. “Multemyr (Skrøytnes)” shows us an other way in which we use and exploit nature, even though it at first looks untouched compared to the mining-landscape.

Both have been printed and mounted on roll-ups, a medium mainly used for promotion. This was inspired by the mainy roll-ups promoting the return of the mining industry seen in Kirkenes during my visit, portraying a certain kind of optimism towards the future. Removing all text and replacing the often collage-aesthetics of the roll-ups with one single image I’ve played on the roll-ups mission of selling a product or an idea. The hight (2m tall) and size (nearly 3m in length all together) is actively used to create an overwhelming feeling playing on the notion of the sublime.