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The photographic meeting

"I'm not looking for any documentary look – I'd rather blend in with the reality of the people I'm portraying. It is in the meeting between me and them, where the boundary between fiction and documentary is unclear, that I can create something honest, ”says Hilde Honerud.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Hilde Honerud and Jon Hovland: Exercises in Norwegian. Crossing Publishers, 2016

On the occasion of the book Exercises in Norwegian by visual artist Hilde Honerud and sociologist Jon Hovland, Ny Tid has talked to Hilde about portrait photography.

Girl: I think photography can be a way to distance yourself from something, to put something in perspective, so that you can observe, analyze and try to understand something. Portrait photography can be a way of looking at "the others" – at the same time it can help us identify with them and get closer. What creates compassion, and what contributes to alienation?

Screen Shot at 2016 05-11-11.49.24Hilde: When I work on projects, I always try to find a point that makes room for something in common. I feel that the more down and undramatic I am in the expression, the closer I get to the person watching. Contrary to the news, which tells you what to think, I hope my projects can create a space for reflection. When what you see is neither striking nor intrusive, an opportunity arises to enter the image – and not necessarily to identify with the person in the image, but to feel a kinship.

And really, it's not like I've had any analytical distance. One of the strengths of working with Jon, a researcher, is that he handles distance and analysis. Specifically, this meant that I sat with him when he did research interviews, before I actively participated in taking the portraits.

Girl: When I see the portraits in Exercises in Norwegian, I'm thinking about the megalomaniac project of August Sander, Mankind in the 20th Century from the 1920s, where he embarked on photographing humanity represented by Germans in various occupational groups and social classes. He used frontal posing with surroundings that tell about profession and status in society. Your portraits are presented without name and profession. Do they thus only represent themselves?

Much photography today is about showing oneself, or showing oneself through what pictures one takes. It can quickly become a bit easy to buy.

Hilde: They do not represent professions, but they represent something outside themselves. They have higher education and they want to move. So they are clearly a group, without any sort of cataloging. Place also matters. I asked them to take me to places that were important to them, and so also tells the place about the person on another level. August Sander is not an important reference for me.

Both you and I have our basic education from Scotland – for my part in a university that was strongly characterized by the Becher school. So photographers like Hilla and Bernd Becher, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff and Rineke Dijksra characterized me strongly in the past. So you can say that my works are often in a tension between cool composition and typology, and the desire to convey a closeness. I'm weak for well-composed images. Richard Avedon's lovely Dovima with Elephants is one of my favorite pictures.

I think a lot of what I see now becomes very self-fixed, and a bit like that from below and up the skirt edge. A lot of photography today I find that it is about showing oneself, or showing oneself through what pictures one takes. It can quickly become a bit easy to buy.

Girl: I recognize the conflict between the cool expression of the Becher School, which was a huge influence during education, and the desire to convey a feeling. Then we looked at the portrait photography as a representation, which made me concerned about the portrait situation itself as a theme. Roland Barthes writes in his much cited book The bright room from the 1980s that when we are photographed, we are at the same time who we think we are, the one we want others to believe we are, the photographer we think we are, and finally that photographer will portray us as. Today, with all the pictures we take of ourselves, we have of course greatly increased our self-awareness. But in that smattering of role-playing games, it's a pretty wobbly ethical space where I can often feel like I'm getting a little lost as a photographer. Where do you think a photographer's responsibility for the person portrayed begins – and ends?

Hilde: One of the places was a fairly young student group, and these students were very happy to pose. Then there was something that conflicted with the expression I was looking for, because it became a kind of attire. I'm also not looking for a documentary look. I believe more in interfering with their reality. It is in the meeting between me and the portraits that I can create something honest – where the boundary between fiction and documentary is unclear. It is this meeting that is important to me. If I trust that meeting in itself, something happens between me and the person I am taking pictures of.

Girl: When I talk about responsibility for the portrayed, I just think of the responsibility to include the meeting itself in the picture. That as a photographer you can choose to take on responsibility for the other's intentions, because as a photographer you are in a kind of position of power to shape something in your image. Can you say something about how you progress as a photographer in meeting another person?

Hilde: This project was a lot about getting both the strength and the durability I experienced. The people are in a shift, and there is a vulnerability in this. As I sat and observed the person during the interviews, I also observed body language and attitude when talking about plans and wishes. There is, after all, a lot to do with having a genuine curiosity about the whole person, and capturing the person. There is a common story telling between them and myself, though they have different agendas. As mentioned, some will pose and look good, others will try to give me what they think I want. Others again are not so keen on the picture, but will help tell a story. I find that many are happy and proud to be able to tell a story through themselves.

Girl: What is the background for the project?

Hilde: The work is about a different part of the migration than the one we hear about in the news picture. In recent years, it has become increasingly relevant for highly educated Europeans to seek a career in Norway, not as craftsmen and the like, but a more academic career. We wanted to find out what the motivations are – before they leave.

Girl: This was also a research project. Why do people want to travel to Norway?

Hilde: That's right, we've been working completely parallel to the same project both in visual arts and sociology. For us, an important part of the process was to see how far we could go without any of the design languages ​​having to compromise in favor of the other.

There are a lot of reasons to want to travel, people are different, but some things were quite striking. One was that those who are applying to Norway, to a small extent, do not want an exceptional life. They are concerned that things will work fine around them. Salary is important because they want to be able to have leisure time and be with the family. A good deal believes that Norwegian society has a social order that they want to be associated with on a moral level. And then it is Norwegian nature, then. For some, it was absolutely crucial.


In this column, visual artist Nina Toft presents a new photo project or a new photo book every month.

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