A comprehensive exhibition of Per Berntsen’s photographs from the past eighteen years before 1995. Selections from Berntsen’s production presented in this exhibition included the series from Rjukan (1980-83), several series of landscape photographs from Eggedal (1977-90), the Oslo Harbour (1993) and the newer series from the mountains in Flå and Nes. The solo exhibition firmly established the artist as an art photographer in the Norwegian art scene.

“Berntsen’s pictures build on a long tradition within American landscape photography. His thorough understanding of the formal language in this tradition, and his exploitation of its technical possibilities, are used in the depiction of landscapes and urban areas with which the artist is most familiar. His precise and confident use of past knowledge of form provides his pictures with an expression that makes it possible for the viewer to reflect upon central problems posed regarding belonging and place, the relationship between organic nature and man’s self-understanding, as well as the fundamental questions surrounding the possibilities of being able to live authentically and creatively.”

Ståle Vold, Chairman of the Board.

“That which distinguishes Per Berntsen from some of his predecessors (…) is that he does not travel in exotic regions, he is not an explorer of unknown areas. He is not a “frontiersman,” rather he explores an area with which he should be most familiar. As with Robert Adams in the pictures from The Missouri West (New York, 1980), he repeats a voyage of discovery. In order to understand the meaning of rediscovering, one must distinguish between History and each individual’s history. Berntsen’s landscape has been discovered and there are no longer any blank spots on the map in History. As Gary Snyder expresses it: “… it is easy to think that there are vast spaces on earth yet unadministered, perhaps forgotten, or unknown (the endless sweep of spruce forest in Alaska or Canada) – but it is all mapped and placed in some domain.” (The Practice of the Wild, p. 29)

However, it is essential to place this distinction in its historical setting, for Berntsen utilizes forms in his art that stem from a photographic tradition which has grown out of the way photography previously accompanied explorations and wanderings; superseding watercolors, lithographs and travel sketches. In order to tell the story, one must turn to American and British travel narratives. The more recent explorations on the North American content, the settling of the wild west at the end of the last century, are a continuation of the early colonialists’ travels in the eastern and middle parts of North America, the first areas to be settled and explored. The assertion made by Conceptual artists in the 1960’s about painting – that it “swims in a sea of language” – concerns Per Berntsen’s photographs as well, texts carry their meaning forward.”

Åsmund Torkildsen, Still ･Gaze ･Up ･Here ･Over ･There ･Again

Per Olav Berntsen (b. 1953, Modum) is a Norwegian photographer and visual artist. He has been a central figure in the effort to establish photography as a recognised artistic medium in the Norwegian art scene. He is one of the country's foremost landscape photographers, and works primarily with analogue black-and-white photography.