Photography in Norway - History

History

The first known photography in Norway dates from 1839, when Hans Thøger Winther bought his first camera. The oldest image on file is one of his pictures from 1840. Daguerreotypes became popular in the 1840s, and several entrepreneural photographers established studios in major cities for portrait photography and also took portable studios to smaller population centers. Winther published a number of articles on photography in newspapers and published a book in 1845 titled:

"Instructions on how in various ways to produce and establish IMAGES OF LIGHT on paper, such as portraits of living persons, prospects of nature, copies of paintings, plastic copper items, stone prints, leaves of plants, etc., partly by using a camera obscura, partly with an instrument for copying"

Portrait photography became more affordable and commonplace throughout the 19th century, and around 1860 landscape photography took root in Norway. Marcus Selmer is considered to be the first landscape photographer with considerable production, but Knud Knudsen and the Swede Axel Lindahl made the most systematic efforts in traveling and capturing landscapes.

From the late 19th century until World War I, photographers set up shop throughout Norway. Many women were among them.

In 1901, Anders Beer Wilse returned from the United States. He became one of the most famous photographers in Norway. In addition to documenting natural landscapes and ethnology throughout Norway, he was also an accomplished portrait and architecture photographer.

Although dominated primarily by German influences in the late 19th century, Pictorialism caught on in Norway when it did elsewhere in the world and was promoted by Oslo camera club, founded in 1921. Photographers whose work represent Norwegian pictorialism include Robert Collett, Aage Remfeldt, Thomas Blehr, and Waldemar Eide.

Around World War I, portrait photography in Norway became more of an expressive art as a result of the work of Waldemar Eide, Dimitri Koloboff, Gunnar Theodor Sjøwall, Aage Remfeldt, Hans Johnsrud and Anders Beer Wilse.