Knudsen, Lindahl and Valentine – Norwegian landscape photography from 1880-1900
Be sure not to miss this exquisite collection of photographs of major sights! Galleri Balder presents three key landscape photographers who worked in Norway during the last half of the 1800s. The collection covers both landscapes and pictures of everyday life, all taken by Knud Knudsen, Axel Lindahl and William Dobson Valentine.
Photographer and fruit farmer Knud Knudsen (1832-1915) was a major pioneer of Norwegian landscape photography. He was apprentice to Marcus Selmer before he started his own business in Bergen in 1864. Knudsen developed his own artistic expression and has been one of the great trendsetters of Norwegian photography.
Swede Axel Lindahl (1832-1906) was Knudsen’s most ardent competitor in the market. Lindahl made a great career as a portrait and landscape photographer in Sweden before he moved to Norway. The reason for his move was probably that business prospects for landscape photography were better in Norway, which was experiencing a rapid increase in foreign tourism.
The Scottish photographer William Dobson Valentine (1844-1907) visited Norway several times between 1888 and 1893. His magnificent and monumental landscape pictures were produced for a fastidious international market. Unfortunately, all the negatives with Valentine’s Norway pictures were destroyed in a fire in 1961. The exhibition shows a series of so-called Mammoth plates by William Dobson Valentine. Mammoth plates are large contact copies with a fantastic level of detail and range of tones. These photographs by Valentine were ”found” in Germany a few years ago and are extremely rare.
The exhibition has its own catalogue.
Exhibition curator: Ole Buenget / Galleri Balder.
A selection of the pictures can be seen at:
http://www. galleribalder.com/
Photograph attached:
Knud Knudsen (1832-1915)
“Parti af Geirangerfjorden, Sandmør”. Approx. 1882
Albumin 16.5 x 23 cm
Galleri Balder
