Uncertain States Scandinavia Issue 2

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Stig Marlon Weston

Rebecca Jafari

Łukasz Zamaro

Kristin Slotterøy

Ihne Pedersen

Gjert Rognli

Gard Aukrust

Charlie Fjätström

Caterina Bernardi

Grove

Belonging

I am a cinematographer

241 EAST BAY BLVD.

The self-portrait project

The Forgotten Place

Øyer, 21/04/2016

Home

This is my ode to Lofoten

Credit: Kristin Slotterøy

ISSUE 02

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Issue 02

KRIStIn SlotteRØY 241 EAST BAY BLVD. This project started when I found pictures of two people in a closet in my late grandmother’s house. The letter was addressed to my great grandmother Karen Dahl, and the sender was the American couple Mr. and Mrs. Chris Harris. On the back of the image above (right) the following was written in some kind of English v Norwegian mashup: in broken Norwegian: ”Dette er et foto of min kone. Hun er 3 aar yngre than mig. Hun er en wonderfine partner. Og we get along very got. Vi har en liten hund som er saa nice og snill. Hun er bare 2 kilo.” The letter was sent on January 12th 1973. These images made me wonder about who Mr. and Mrs. Chris Harris were and how did they lived. This started a chain of reflections which developed into a process and a series of pictures. I have previously focused on taking pictures of buildings, objects and nature and rarely of people. The images of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Harris and the reflections around these images is the reason that I decided to include photos of people in my work. I’ll take pictures of people, their places - where they belong - in their natural enviroment or at home, where they often are master of their domain. Previously I’ve worked with man-made objects, focusing solely on the object, not the man or woman who made it. Introducing people to my photograpy will not change my style; my kind of less-is-more-signature, I believe it will only make it easier to see. I’ll photograph humans the same way as I’ve done with buildings, objects, nature. I find it natural to identify myself with a Scandinavian artistic expression as well as my work. ”241 EAST BAY BLVD.” deals with microcommunities that exist side by side in large societies. Why are we so different when we live so close to each other and do the same things?

The images of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Harris started a process, and underway this process shaped it self into a personal challenge: My way of working and my style is described as tidy and minimalist and has previously consisted of objects, buildings and nature. In the beginning of the self-inflicted change my thoughts lingered: What happens if I add or replace these items with people? What happens to the photograph - and not least, what does this mean for me as a photographer? Will my style change, take a new direction, or will it be clearer? I find myself influenced and motivated by the German photography style originated in Dusseldorf. Hilla and Bernd Becher has been two guiding stars. I want to use the camera as a tool to document form and repetition. The style emphasizes and shows the subject in an objective, pure and pragmatic manner. With my photographic series, I always try to create a sense of collecting and presenting data and information. I use this to get a bigger and better understanding of the life I live, in a community which is shared with so many others. While working on 241 E. BAY BLVD I was searching for some kind of strict unity, something to keep the different images together as an abstract pattern. By working this way I emphasize the subject importance and try to guide the viewer to see what I want to portray. I hope that these visual hints can develop into beeing a part of my identity as a photographer. I work with a 50mm fixed lens. This pushes me to work more closely on the subject. When using this type of lens I get closer, both physically and closer on a personal and mental level. This pushes me out of my comfort zone and drives me towards taking more intimate pictures. It’s been special trying to balance my own scrutiny while I try to create mutual respect between the subject and myself. The goal is to make a connection and a cooperation with the subject and I believe this is crucial in capturing a honest and interesting image.

Why are you yourself? And why am I myself? kristin.slotteroy@gmail.com

These questions have also been consistent in my previous work. They are an important part of what I want to find and document. I’m curious about, and have a deep desire to explore, what life is, what’s in it, around and beside it. Since I was a kid I’ve had an inquisitive personality. I’d rather know rather than assume. I see this as the driving force in my work and an important part of beeing me.

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Issue 02

Gjert Rognli The Photography series called The Forgotten Place, the artwork seem both a little scary and alluring. The photographs are a depiction of animals, masculinity and a colorful depiction of a potentially enigmatic landscape. Representations that bring us as viewers closer to life and death. The work is open to more questions and interpretations; have people lost connection to the supernatural or religious nature? Are our lives as consumers in a globalized world only centering on production, control and power? Rognli gives us a visual message about a reprehensible development in how we humans live our lives. http://grognli.wix.com/theforgottenplace gjert.rog@gmail.com

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Issue 02

Ĺ ukasz Zamaro I am a cinematographer, I work with moving images to tell the story in time, but my photographic experience is different. Through traveling I become the outsider to observe and witness existential nature of human being. Those images are strangely quiet and clear, loaded with loneliness of sleeping people and their relation to the landscape. www.Zama.ro lukasz.zamaro@gmail.com

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Gard Aukrust In a drawer at my parents place I found an unexposed film from the 90´s; the period of time when I was growing up and life felt ever so meaningless. I decided to go for a walk and waste the film. I ended up between the railroad tracks and the highway, where time had only made minor changes to the landscape. Ă˜yer, 21/04/2016 www.gardaukrust.com

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Issue 02

Caterina Bernardi These images were shot last year in Lofoten, an archipelago north of the arctic circle in Norway. I was inspired by a quote that Gustav Vigeland, a famous Norwegian sculptor, attributed to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, a Nobel Laureate, in his book: “One has not seen real nature before one has been to northern Norway, and the most beautiful of all is Lofoten.” Inspired by Bjørnson’s quote I traveled north the very next day to Lofoten’s beautiful and wild nature, where I wanted to capture the magic atmosphere under the midnight sun’s glowing light. The dramatic mountains in Lofoten have distinctive pinnacles and there are bedrocks that are over 2 billion years old, some of the oldest in Norway. Lofoten also has the world’s largest deep water coral reef, and the waters are abundant with marine life that fisherman have been harvesting cod from for over a thousand years. My husband called it the arctic Hawaii, as the archipelago is truly an arctic paradise. Last year the north was calling me again, and I embarked on another trip to Lofoten with my husband and my Russian friend Elena. Upon

arrival we did not hesitate to start location scouting and shooting the spectacular landscape and towns that dotted around the islands that reached out to the North Sea.

the water become like one, where the afternoon light is painted with every shade of blue and rose, and the waves crush upon you and makes your heart skip a beat.

We went to bed around 2:30 am the first night we arrived, and so it went on for a week of shooting all day and late into the night, since it does not get properly dark in summer time. Everyday we kept discovering new places to shoot. I felt as if I was eating, dreaming, breathing the dramatic nature of Lofoten, and becoming intertwined with the elements of the environment. I wanted to climb every mountain peak and inhale and harvest the breathtaking vistas and long views, framed by the sun’s rays writing glittering poems over bodies of water. I wanted to document every step I took over this ancient land. The sun and the moon were visibly present day and night, and time was no longer linear, it felt eternal. This is what Jung would call: “The reconciliation of opposites.” I was in a constant, perpetual cycle of endless days with eternal light that illuminated every forgotten corner, dark spot and cold stone. It felt like I had arrived at the end of the road where the sky and

How could I capture all this with my camera…? The result is a series of images that was both inspired by fairytales from my childhood and the discovery of places along the way in Lofoten. The one link that carried the story through was the white vintage dresses, and I even put one on myself for an image. This is my ode to Lofoten, a very special place in my heart, that I hope you enjoy. www.caterinabernardi.com cat@caterinabernardi.com

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Issue 02

Stig Marlon Weston Going back along the forest paths where as child I used to hide and play and construct worlds of fantasy, I today carry with me huge rolls of film. By ditching the camera and placing nature´s gnarly finger on the trigger I hope to catch a glimpse of that elusive primal feeling that only the innocent young and the wild beast have in common. In the middle of the night I hang my film in the open air to let the landscape expose itself on my

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canvas of chemicals. Back home again I develop my film and make life size contact prints. The tears and scratches are just as much a part of the imprint of the trees as the shape and shadow they leave on the film.

a result of careful framing by a subjective eye looking through a viewfinder. Instead these photographs are the visible chemical recordings of physical processes going on independently of the interpreting observer.

is not something we can force into right angles and a balanced composition. But in these works she is pinned down through natural chemical reactions, and the laws of physics shows us the seething breeding ground of our inner phantasms.

By this process the film ends up as a sampling tool, dipped and left to soak in the unadulterated darkness of the natural night. The impressions left on the film have not been placed there as

Facing the images that are in a way made by themselves we get to see Mother Nature caught by a maelstrom of photons, rearing up on her hind legs looking back at us with a defiant stare. Nature

www.weston.no

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Rebecca Jafari «Belonging« is an ongoing, personal project about my father and me and my search for my Iranian roots. My father is from Iran, but I’ve never been there. In my project I’m using my camera as a diary trying to capture my longing for my own roots and my search for a feeling of belonging. How important is it? To know where you’re from, what you’re from? After giving my birth to my second child and giving her a Persian name, I felt it was the right time to explore my father’s background. My father is very close to me, but I realized I knew very little about his past. In Norway I’m often asked where I’m from because of how I look. I wanted to know the part of me that had always been there, but that I have never known. Kntakt : www.rebeccajafari.com rebecca.jafari@gmail.com

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Ihne Pedersen “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

Marilyn Monroe www.ihnebilder.no

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Issue 02

Charlie Fjätström It’s been 12 years since I decided to move away from home, a small town called Orrmo in the valley of Härjedalen. At that time I felt that Orrmo did not accept me because I thought it was too little and very boring. Arghh the nature; the woods, lake and that dreadful cold. I wished all of this for the people of Orrmo, but not for myself. For the people of Orrmo local news are big. It

seemed to me like they didn’t talk about anything else than wolves killing their sheep, the wind power plant planned that will destroy a large area of the woods, or that shitty petrol station in Lillhärdal. For us teenagers there was only one way to socialize and that was with a cup and with home brewed spirits in it. And of course at the parties you would have to be careful not to shag a girl with one’s DNA too close to yours, I am not denying that it felt horrible to leave my

family behind, but I just hated this place and its extreme dullness. I was a difficult and angry teenager back then. Now I am thinking that I might have let my hormones gotten the better of me Besides that my thoughts have stayed exactly the same since the day I moved away from home. I have never in 12 years cared about home But then I change my mind. I am driving in my

white Mazda and I feel for the first time a longing for home. I am actually excited about going home and I have even brought with me 3 cameras. I don’t hate the woods and the lake anymore. I suddenly understand why the people of Orrmo choose to live here.

develop. Today urbanization has become a threat to the countryside, people move into bigger cities and it gets progressively remote. I am asking why businesses and our state only consider the numbers and the economy when what is most important is the quality of life. For everyone www.charliefjatstrom.com charlie@ucsscandinavia.com

I now feel compassionate towards home and I wish for this place to withstand and to actually

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Uncertain States Scandinavia is a non-profit lens based artist collective who are passionate in creating, discussing and promoting photography. In this volatile global climate the work reflects some of our current concerns and challenges how perception is formed in our society on issues as diverse as politics, religions and personal identity. For your on-line copy, visit www.ucsscandinavia.com Subscribe to the newspaper at info@ucsscandinavia.com Follow us on Instagram: ucsscandinavia Uncertain States Scandinavia DA NO 916337027 Edited by Astrid Gjersøe Skåtterød, Tor S Ulstein and Charlie Fjätström. Designed By James Young. Printed By Amedia Trykk og Distribusjon.

We welcome submissions from lens-based artists for further publications. For all enquiries please contact info@ucsscandinavia.com

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