Nieuwe weg naar Odda aan de Hardangerfjord, Noorwegen 1861 - 1870

Editor: So this is “Nieuwe weg naar Odda aan de Hardangerfjord, Noorwegen,” by Knud Knudsen, taken sometime between 1861 and 1870. It’s an albumen print – so a photograph – and the landscape feels so dramatic and imposing. What do you see in this piece, given the period it was created? Curator: I see a portrait of progress, but also a quiet resistance. Consider that this “new road” through the Hardangerfjord wasn’t just a neutral act of engineering. It was a deliberate intervention, impacting the indigenous communities. The photograph, in its stark romanticism, is promoting an idealised version of Norwegian identity – tied to the land, sure, but also implicitly celebrating colonial advances, a certain vision of civilization imposing itself upon the wild. Editor: Colonial advances? That's an interesting take, I hadn't thought about it in that way. Is it possible the artist simply intended to capture the grandeur of nature? Curator: Possibly. But photography itself was still a relatively new technology, intimately linked to documentation and power. Who controlled the image? Whose story was being told? Whose voices were omitted from this picturesque scene? What narratives about Norwegian culture, national pride, masculinity are built into that heroic vista? Editor: I guess when you frame it like that, the road doesn't just seem like a road anymore. It really changes my understanding. Curator: Exactly. Consider how this imagery was likely used, as propaganda almost, to attract tourists or validate government policies, even. The photograph, on the surface, is “just” a landscape, but it performs cultural work. And it begs us to reflect on which people, at the time, may have had totally divergent perspectives. Editor: I'll definitely be thinking about this photograph differently now. Thanks for that perspective. Curator: It’s about opening a space to challenge the narrative of power encoded within the image itself. Seeing how it interacts with gender, identity, and ultimately shapes our cultural understanding.