“The Norwegian Biodiversity Centre has observed and registered 30,346 animal species in Norway. With Observations of a New Norwegian Fauna in the Years 2014–2022 I want to document Norway and the landscape through an alternative and expanded Norwegian fauna. A zoological low threshold offering; none of the animals are real. None of the images are staged. They are all found through massive travel and search around Norway, over a period of nine years.
I want to show the cultural and natural landscape we have around us every day. What does our everyday scenery and land really look like? I use these observations of new Norwegian fauna as way of highlighting the more normal surroundings, that we usually don’t see and pay any attention to. Trampolines, hedges, garden houses, double garages, yield signs, terraced houses, pallets, tarpaulins, picket fences, satellite dishes, caravans, and everything that we fill the landscape with, and becomes what our topography look like here and now. An exotic animal as a contrast to the more common and familiar milieu.”
/ Helge Skodvin
This book can be seen as an independent sequel to Helge Skodvin’s first, since long sold out book 240 Landscapes – by British photographer and photo book connoisseur Martin Parr regarded as “The Best Photobook in the World 2015”.
70 color images • Design: Aslak Gurholt • Editor: Gösta Flemming • Afterword: Bjørn Hatterud • Translation to English: Matt Bagguley • Hard cover • 275 x 230 mm • 144 pages • English/Norwegian • Prepress and printing: Narayana Press • ISBN 978-91-87939-72-3 • 2023
