MELK

New Scandinavian Photography
Edited by Bjarne Bare and Behzad Farazollahi

New Scandinavian Photography - Black Dog Publishing 2015
ISBN 978-1-910433-09-6

22 × 17 cm | 6.5 × 8.5 in
211 ills | 288 pages
Hardback
ISBN 978-1-910433-09-6

Editors: Bjarne Bare, Behzad Farazollahi

Featured artists include: Kristina Bengtsson, Thora Dolven Balke, Asger Carlsen, Marius Engh, Linda Hofvander, Nicolai Howalt, Adam Jeppesen, Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, Mårten Lange, Linn Pedersen, Johan Rosenmunthe, Torbjørn Rødland, Emil Salto, Marthe Elise Stramrud, Vibeke Tandberg and Marianne Vierø.

Essays contributed by: Erling Moestue Bugge, Simen J Helsvig, Sara Knelman, Nina Strand, Sara R Yazdani, Niclas Östlind, Anne-Sophie Rasmussen, Erik Steffensen, Kåre Bulie, Brian Sholis, Marit Paasche, Bruno Ceschel,  Joanna L Cresswell, Milena Høgsberg, Cora Fisher, Jenny Kinge, Kristian Skylstad and Mirthe Berentsen.

Launched at the Whitechapel Gallery in London on September 12 2015 with a panel discussion chaired by Behzad Farazollahi from MELK, with Bruno Ceschel  from Self Publish Be Happy and artists Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, Thora Dolven Balke, Kristina Begtsson, and A.K Dolven.

As the first comprehensive study of the contemporary Scandinavian photography scene, this book documents the shift in Scandinavian photography away from a documentary practice and towards a fine art discourse. Since the late 1980s, Scandinavian photography has evolved into an internationally recognised art scene, with the past two decades seeing a transition away from traditional photojournalism.

Focusing on the last ten years, and produced in collaboration with MELK, New Scandinavian Photography highlights the work produced by a diverse range of artists who are exploring and manipulating the use of photography in their practices and explores the medium through academic texts and interviews, addressing the technical and material properties of photography in the context of fine art and pan-media practice, with a focus on the exhibition room as well as printed matter.

Through critical examination and personal interviews, the book showcases established names in the photographic art scene such as Asger Carlsen and Emil Salto, along with emerging talents that include Mårten Lange and Marthe Elise Stramrud. A key focus is placed upon artists’ use of photography as a medium, along with their methods of presentation, from the white cube gallery space to intimate printed matter.

With a number of essays by an international roster of curators and scholars, the volume is a useful introduction to a group of photographers whose work is very much aligned with some of the concerns animating contemporary photography today, underscoring the idea that the photography scene in Scandinavia, more broadly, is very much relevant and alive.
Michael Famighetti
Editor, Aperture
What seems to characterize this new generation is that they have moved past the image itself: Photographers no longer limit themselves to depicting reality, they create new realities, and move physically out of the frame into sculptural and romanticized relationships.
André Gali
Editor, Kunstforum
MELK