K. Linnea Backe (Creative Practice, '19) is presenting new work from her long-term project Vidle himla/Wild Skies this fall in two exhibitions in Oslo, Norway: at Fotografiens hus and at CYAN mørkerom, part of the Oslo Negativ photography festival.
Both exhibitions draw from Backe's long-term project Vidle himla/Wild Skies, made on Norway's western coast. At Fotografiens hus, or "The House of Photography," Backe is part of a two-photographer exhibition opening in October, showing Portal, a chapter of the project rendered in silver-gelatin prints and analog c-prints. Backe will give an artist talk at the gallery on October 3 at 7 p.m.
At CYAN mørkerom ("CYAN darkroom"), Backe is one of around a dozen photographers featured in a group show. There, she is presenting Objects, a different chapter of the same project, made using cyanotypes and sun imprints. The festival runs October 1 through November 15, 2026.
"My place on the western coast of Norway is a place of metamorphosis, a Norwegian portal to different mindset, full of secrets, interpretations and places where I can make abstractions and add meaning. By abstraction I do not try to depict nothingness, I want the photographs to be without assumption. I make photographs that are visual improvisation. Colors and textures should be a bit out of reach. At the same time as the visual and technical work is resting on internalized knowledge and the fact that I make photographs I need to make on a deep level. I push and pull the visual media and also research sense of place and materiality, as I do the whole technical process myself. Vidle himla is made in the dark season, when the sea screams its secrets," said Backe.
Kristin Linnea Backe (K. Linnea Backe) is a mainly analog photographer based in Oslo, Norway. She is also a musician, educator, and musicologist. She is a member of FFF, the Norwegian organization for photographers and camera-based artists.
"As a former musician, the study of tonality and form is important to me, as is the flow of the melodic line. Music is a way of saying without really saying, a medium to hide oneself to reveal oneself. It gives immense freedom but the freedom is contained, pared-down, as it is in photography. In photography, singular objects can be the means for looking without telling, for asking questions without giving answers. The examination of these simple objects in time, as they are touched by light, gives the viewer the power to see in darkness," she added.
Images: K. Linnea Backe
