The Blue North
In January, I was fortunate to spend a week in Lofoten with a group of fellow Norwegian photographers. Lofoten is an area of northern Norway, comprising a series of connected islands that form a peninsula jutting westwards into the Norwegian Sea, above the Arctic Circle. The region had just emerged from the short period of ‘Polar Night’ around the turn of the New Year when the sun does not rise above the horizon. And it was cold - icy cold. The days were still brief but there was more than enough light to make images in the remarkable landscape - and it was overwhelmingly blue.
Flakstadøja, Lofoten Islands
In recent years, Norway has worked hard to put itself on the tourist map - think Joanna Lumley and her advertisements for holidays in pursuit of sightings of the mercurial Northern Lights - the Aurora. Lofoten has emerged as a particular destination for visitors in search of vistas of its precipitous mountains, endless fjords and white sand beaches - all punctuated by villages built of wood and painted in the traditional red and yellow that are the region’s calling card.Inevitably, it now attracts photographers from around the world.
Reine, Western Lofoten, Norway
During my week-long visit I was astonished to encounter van-loads of photographic workshops in action with serried ranks of tripods - all struggling to stay warm and focused. For this is a harsh place in winter. While I was there, a team of Japanese mountaineers had lost a member to the freezing cold and ice.
For me as a photographer, the high latitude and middle of the arctic winter presented the particular challenge of how to handle the strong blue cast that permeated almost every image I sought to make.
As this example illustrates, in the end I decided simply that I should embrace ‘the blue’. It is not coincidental that we photographers and visual artists describe blues and cyans, as the cold end of the colour spectrum, while reds and oranges are warm. This image made on a beach south of Ramberg is this colour because this is how it appeared to my eye and through my viewfinder that particular afternoon.
Through the use of a long exposure to remove the distraction of a choppy sea and emphasise the dynamic cloud over the mountains, I believe the image not only conveys the strong connection I felt to this remarkable environment, but also the feeling of cold and overwhelming sense of being alone with the elements in this unforgiving but starkly beautiful place.
