From the series Contact - Northern Light
«When I face a landscape, I already see it in platinum.» In Jens Knigge’s series Contact – Northern Light, the distinctive grandeur that is palpable amidst overwhelming nature at the polar circle is reflected in photographs of the snow-covered landscapes and mysteriously flickering Northern Lights (Aurora borealis). The pictures were taken on the Norwegian Nordkinn Peninsula, in Skaftafell nature reserve in Iceland, and at the Finnish-Norwegian border river Tenojoki. Knigge’s serene landscapes show pieces of rock and ice, snow-covered streets and quiet coves, small trees and bare rocks. He made a barely visible landscape to be seen, photographing under often harsh conditions during the Scandinavian dark wintertime. Using the platinum-palladium printing technique enables him to show all the subtleties captured by his camera.
His photo of the snow-covered Tufjorden on the North Cape is an ode to the light from the north. Softly lit white, in an almost abstract landscape that encloses the still grey water in the fjord. In the background – a wall of dense sombre clouds. A closed space that is only visible through the slowly returning light in winter. Knigge’s serene landscapes show pieces of rock and ice, snow-covered streets and quiet coves, small trees and bare rocks. Wherever he found traces of human civilisation, he combined those shapes with the surrounding landscape.
To name his series Northern Light seems almost ironic. Knigge made all his photographs in the wintertime, when there is almost no light in Scandinavia. He made seen a barely visible landscape, photographing under often harsh conditions. Using the platinum-palladium printing technique enables him to show all the subtleties that were captured by his camera. The rich grey tonal scale can only be achieved in this almost archaic analogue process.