Nordic Life

Life, in both small and large scales. Shown in great detail or by panorama. During a week in May where tens of thousands of pictures taken of what normally is not showed in media – the daily life with daily work and happiness. An international jury selected the best pictures to a big book and a Fotografiska For Life Exhibition at Fotografiska. The result is a unique pictorial love story and reflection of how much more we have in common than things that set us apart where ever we live, and is set to open on UN-day 24th of October.

depict everyday life in the North

Truth be told, could you without stuttering name all the Nordic countries? Whether or not you’re able to, you now have the chance to dive head first into the coursing river that is contemporary Nordic history.

In what is probably the biggest photographic project to ever take place in the Nordic, a thousand photographers have set out to depict everyday life in the North.

The Fotografiska For Life Exhibition Nordic Life itself opens on international UN-day (24 October) at Fotografiska, while the publisher Max Ström simultaneously releases a 360 page long book by the same name, featuring images from the project. The book is released in 6 different languages – one for every one of the Nordic languages and one in English.

The project itself was started by a combination of Max Ström and the Foundation “Expression of Humankind”, when they invited all of the photographers involved to partake in this documentary project of life in the North.

During one week in may 2019, all of these photographers pointed their lenses at something that’s not usually looked at – everyday life, with all it’s peaks and valleys. Together they took tens of thousands of pictures from which an international jury chose the very best images, roughly 200 of them, of which 60 is to be displayed at Fotografiska.

Everything from a dramatic Swedish home birth to bird hunting in Åland; from Norwegian swim schools for newly arrived students and Danish fungus farming. And lest we forget the deeply touching picture from when people in Greenland gather in a silent manifestation against the many suicides amongst their young ones.

At it’s core the project has the shared intention of the UN:s global goals of focusing on good health, a proper education for all, equality, sustainable energy for all, sustainable industry, innovations as well as infrastructure, sustainable cities and societies, a fight against climate change and last but not least – peaceful and including societies.

seemingly endless plains and massive mountains, deep forests and barren flats, staggering rivers and gigantic glaciers

With its almost three and a half million square kilometers the Nordic countries create an area bigger than India (strangely enough the Nordic is mostly positioned in North America as more than 60% of its area is made up of Greenland). The North has some of the most shifting types of natures in the world, seemingly endless plains and massive mountains, deep forests and barren flats, staggering rivers and gigantic glaciers, and despite all of this most of the population can be found in cities of varying sizes. All of these different settings, backgrounds and ways of life is depicted in the project.

“The book Nordic Life shows so clearly that there is so much more that unites us than divides us, no matter where we live or where we’re from”, says the projects starter Jeppe Wikström from Max Ström.