On 12 and 13 October 2018, all eight NJP photographers met in Oslo for two days of picture editing for the fourth edition of the Norwegian Journal of Photography.
The photographers in the fourth round of NJP have now completed their projects. Friday and Saturday marked the completion of editing of the material for the next edition of the book. The process included publisher Gösta Flemming of Journal Publishing House and the mentors/editors Rune Eraker, Laara Matsen and Espen Rasmussen.
Each photographer got an individual 90-minute meeting at Fritt Ord’s premises, where the projects were pared down from about 50 pictures. Some of photographers chose to edit their work using copies of photos, while others had assembled dummy books for discussion and review.
The stories in the fourth edition cover a broad range, from classic documentary photos and personal reports, to rigidly stylised, artistic projects. The day before the gathering, the mentors and Gösta Flemming met to finish their suggestions for photo selection.
Anxiety
For the past two years, Line Ørnes Søndergaard has worked in three different European countries. She has followed young people in France, that is, a family returning to their homeland, and people who live in poverty in Glasgow. The project began when she was a participant in the World Press Photo Masterclass, and the series from her travels includes intimate, personal stories about a life on the edge, featuring people who live with constant anxiety about what the future will bring.
30 000 kilometres
Two photographers from Bergen are taking part in this round of NJP. Fred Ivar Klemetsen’s story is, in many ways, a deeply personal story after he chose to work with different project than he had initially planned. With raw, close and honest black and white images, he visits the same people he photographed in intimate situations 20 years ago. The project has taken him to Australia and Brazil, among other places.
In recent years, Paul Sigve Amundsen, also from Bergen, has covered more than 30 000 kilometres zig-zagging across Europe with his Linhof Super Technika large format camera from 1969. He has photographed people in 36 European countries in black & white, which he then combines with landscape photos. Many difficult choices had to be made during the editing process because this project, like all the others, had to be pared down to the core.
All Things Royal
In her hunt for royals, photographer Elin Høyland has also covered many kilometres by car, but in contrast to Amundsen, she has stayed in Norway. In her project All Things Royal, she takes pictures of homes, institutions, military installations, ferries, offices, staff canteens and cafés where portraits of members of the royal family grace the walls. Her story is just as much a glimpse into Norwegian interiors and way of life, as it is an account of the royal family. Elin’s photos are meticulously composed, and the depictions of the royals are not always apparent at first glance, but they emerge as you spend time examining the images.
Many of the NJP photographers have personal projects, meaning that they also have clear ideas about how the photos should be edited and presented. Damian Heinisch and Katinka Goldberg are both involved in tracing their family members and both chose to present their works as dummy books.
Four techniques
Damian Heinisch has a broad selection of material in four chapters. Spanning a period of 70 years, the project depicts the ramifications of events from World War II. The story is represented through four European nations, four generations, four elements and four photographic methods that underscore the cycle of life.
It starts with the deportation of Damian’s grandfather in 1945. Over a period of eight years, he has travelled to Ukraine, Poland, Germany and Norway, seeking traces of his family’s history. Damian presented a number of suggestions for different layouts, which the editors then reviewed with him.
Her maternal grandmother had to flee from the Nazis in Trondheim to safety in Sweden. Photographer Katinka Goldberg has followed this story for the past two years. With her grandma’s diary as her point of departure, the photographer followed the same escape route as her grandmother took during WW II. Katinka’s project is not classical documentary photography. She mixes old photos of her grandmother, burns pictures of Nazis in Norway, then shows the escape route and pages from photo albums. Katinka also makes photo montages. Seen together, the pictures take us with on an intense journey into a branch of her family history.
Copious material
Over the past year, Monica Strømdahl has spent nearly five months travelling in the USA. There, she has stayed in different American flop houses, motels and hotels that provide accommodation for poor people who have no regular place to live. Monica embarked on this project 10 years ago. She has made a number of trips to the US and she has collected copious material. Her photos tell stories about the people who live in such places, from sunny Florida to frosty Alaska.
Over the past two years, photographer Therese Alice Sanne has worked with a topic that is rarely documented in photos. She has met young people who are mentally ill, shadowing some of them closely. Therese has chosen to depart from the traditional form of documentary expression, chosing instead to collaborate closely with the subjects of her photos. This has resulted in portraits in which those who are depicted have drawn and written on the photos. In addition, she has worked diligently on details that emphasise the emotion and the expression in the series.
In the weeks ahead, the photographers will further collaborate with the mentors and publisher Gösta Flemming of the Journal Publishing House on the layout, captions and ranking of priorities that were set this weekend.
