Morten Krogvold a Norwegian photographer and the author of several books about photography, has served as the festival’s artistic director since its creation. He eagerly agreed to respond to our questions.
This is the 8th edition of the festival. In comparison to 2006, when the festival was created, which major changes did you notice ?
M. Krogvol : Well, when we started we didn’t know what to expect but then everything is getting bigger. The first time we had quite good names, I mean famous photographers and that helped us a lot. We started with James Nachtwey and people like that . And now it is easier to get the best photographers in the world to come. So everything is larger and it’s very hard work but we have actually a lot of success so, we are very happy for it.
How came the idea to build a festival of Photography in Kristiansund, rather than Oslo for instance?
M. K : Very good question, they hosted me. (laugh) You know it’s a very nice city, located at the ocean. It’s very difficult to do it let’s say in Paris, because it is so big so you need this intimate space. And they asked me and convinced me. I said “Okay we can give it a try if our aim is to be the best festival in the world”. I don’t know if we will succeed that but we have to be at the top level and we actually are getting better. In Oslo we can have some lectures and talk and we can hold the exhibitions but then the people will go home at night but here we stay together all the time. It is a good place to create an atmosphere.
This year there is 25 photographers, how did you make the selection? Steve McCurry and Alex Webb are guest of honor. What about the others, how did you pick them up?
M. K : We have a sort of logo that is “Meet the legends” so we actually want to pick some of the legend every year as Steve McCurry and Alex Webb this year. Then, we want to have some of the interesting young people from Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. And we try also to do some documentaries, some portraits and also to show the new technologies and also the classical photography…
We always want to have some famous photographers. People come when it’s big names, to have the opportunity to meet them once in a lifetime. But it’s also important for me to have young photographers. We want to have young people, old people, a good mix. Classic and technologies. Famous names and beginners.
Is there any innovations for the edition ? I heard about the Beyond Pixels unfestival?
M. K : This year I have picked a new talent, Einar Sira, and I am going do so every year from now. I picked him because he’s very good and never sold anything yet. He’s gonna be highly recognized.
Beyond Pixels, is about the technical future of Photography. I’m running the classical part, but I think it’s important to see what’s happening in the world with technologies. But still, photography is not about technique, it’s about expressing yourself and storytelling.
Next year you should come ! A lot of people ask us “Could we please comeback ? “ and that’s a nice compliment. It’s very friendly, a big huge festival. That’s nice. For us it’s very important that the big stars can meet young people. They’re sharing a beer, glass of wine. You can meet them in a bar, café, on the street… We mix them together and it is not as if they are living in another place with limousines etc.
How many people are you expecting to come ?
M. K : At the exhibition we expect around 35 000 people. I think we gonna have 500, 600 people attending the lectures. So it’s always full house. So there are a lot of people coming but we don’t want too much, we want to meet everyone.
Also, on the first day, 35 exhibition are opening and we have a musical band walking from galleries to galleries, having a speech for everyone… It’s a lot of festivity for everyone. A lot of people are attending the openings, so it’s good fun.
You are in Norway, what about the Scandinavian dimension of the festival? Is there a lot of Scandinavian photographers coming to Nordic Light ?
M. K : Absolutely ! The standard has a very high level in Scandinavian photography. It’s very popular, many people are working very hard and a lot of young interested people are coming. I think Photography has never been so popular in Scandinavia. So many people want to go into Photography even Professional or advance amateurs, the photographic shows in Oslo are seen by a lot of people… In Stockholm in Fotografiska museum, they have around 700 000 people visiting per year ! It just opened three years ago, it’s amazing.
Anything else to add ?
M. K : This year I think all the lectures are very exciting. Not so much talk about photography. But about mental process, to be in the process. Talking about life, life philosophy. We are so fortunate to have them and you don’t have to be particularly interested in photography to come here because they are talking about creativity on a much higher level.
Interview by Juliette Deschodt
