Conditions at the Edge

A long-form photographic work in development

Norway does not enter this work as scenery.

Its mountains, exposed coastlines, changing weather and long distances remain active conditions of everyday life. They make particular forms of settlement, maritime connection and energy generation possible, while also placing pressure on movement, supply and continuity.

Here, the edge is physical before it is metaphorical: exposure to terrain, climate, coastline and distance. Norway is necessary to the work because the relationship between environment and collective organisation becomes especially tangible there.

Conditions at the Edge develops from City in Return, my current long-form photographic essay on the orders through which urban life is supplied, regulated, crossed, interrupted and repaired. In Norway, the scale changes. The question is no longer only how a city has already been organised, but how social and material systems respond when geography itself remains an active force.

Attention may gather around the supply of remote regions, maritime dependence, hydropower and energy transfer, the movement of people and goods, centralisation, regional inequality and visible forms of adaptation to a changing climate. These are not predetermined chapters. Their significance must emerge through the encounters, places and conditions of the work itself.

The photographs will be made in black and white across three annual phases. In 2027, the work is planned to begin through separate stays in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. In 2028, it is intended to continue by road from Trondheim toward Lofoten. A third phase in 2029 will move from Lofoten toward the far north. Each annual phase is expected to involve approximately three weeks of photography, with the possibility of returning to particular places where the work requires it.

Most photographs will arise through observation in publicly accessible environments. Selected access to operational and institutional settings may offer occasional views into systems that normally remain less visible. These images will not form a separate documentary layer. They will enter the same visual field as landscape, settlements, architecture, infrastructure and human presence.

The final structure cannot be fixed before the journeys begin. The work is presently conceived toward a book-length sequence, developed through travel, return, selection and revision across the full three-year period.

Current Stage

Updated August 2026

The project is currently in route planning, practical preparation and early institutional contact.

A first stay in Oslo is planned for the first week of March 2027, with further periods in Bergen and Trondheim being prepared for later that year. The 2028 phase is provisionally planned as a road journey from Trondheim toward Lofoten. In 2029, the route is intended to continue from Lofoten toward the far north.

Initial contact has been made with public, cultural and infrastructural institutions in Norway regarding possible access to selected working environments. Several institutions have responded and practical exchanges are underway. No institution is currently presented as a project partner, and no specific access should yet be understood as secured.

The precise routes, possible returns and eventual balance between public observation and permitted institutional access will be refined as the preparations and the work itself continue.