BY MARTIN PETERSEN
From here, where we stand
we can look around us - to all sides
It moves when we walk
it changes in all times
These lines are taken from one of the most iconic songs in the history of Danish music. Released back in 1971 when everything looked different, “From here, where we stand” was both the title of the album and the song by Skousen & Ingemann. “From here, where we stand” is also the Danish title for the exhibition and project underpinning the three books lying behind me collected in their box. All of them richly illustrated with photos taken by the 14 photographers with different approaches to photography who were chosen from throughout the land to document Denmark in transition. (“Denmark in Transition” also being the English and more descriptive title for the project).
I don’t know if it is just a coincidence that the song and project have the same name, but the lines match the project pretty well. You get to see all sides of Denmark, from east to west, urban and rural. And the project is partly based on the changes that the Danish landscape is undergoing. How the traces from Industry, and Agriculture that have formed our land through the last centuries are being blurred out, and slowly vanishing. As one of the writers in the book remarks: “it is becoming hard to find space for the apparently unnecessary”.
At the same time “Denmark in Transition” is a picture of the period. All the photographs were taken in the period 2008-2009, and regardless of the diversity of approaches that the photographers have brought to project; “Denmark in Transition” is proof that Denmark is a small country with a limited variation in its geographic expression. And Denmark is a small country! Here there are no ridges over 171m, only 43.000 square kilometers of land, but with 7.500 kilometers of coastline. The Danes are descended from farmers and coastal people, and now we find ourselves organized as city-dwellers. The water, the cities, the fields, and the roads that connect it all are omnipresent in the project. We, who inhabit Denmark, less so.
There are local characteristics but you will be forgiven if you cannot tell if it was the eastern or western part of Denmark that the photo was taken in. For me, who lives in Denmark, there is an aspect of recognition in both the photos taken places where I have been and the ones taken in places that I have never visited. In my opinion it is one of the projects great qualities that you can recognize these places that you have never seen before as being Danish. “Denmark in Transition” does not romanticize Denmark; it does not give preferential treatment to any part of the country but shows a wide range of impressions that add up to showing Denmark as it really looks. Another quality of this project.
With the exception of Peter Brandes whom I think lets the art take the upper hand of his photos, every photographer involved in the project was well chosen (Jørgen Borg, Peter Brandes, Christina Capetillo, Krass Clement, Joakim Eskildsen, Mads Gamdrup, Nicolai Howalt, John Jedbo, Astrid Kruse Jensen, Fie Johansen, Kirsten Klein, Janne Klerk, Henrik Saxgren and Trine Søndergaard). If anybody should be emphasized I would first and foremost ask Joakim Eskildsen to step forward as his mixture of claustrophobia and open plains is an outstanding presentation of the calmness you find in the Danish countryside. Kirsten Klein’s analogue black and white photos speak to you with their almost frightening power, and Nicolai Howalt’s versatile views on the Danish borderland also deserve great applause.
The three volumes of books that form “From here, where we stand” is a great introduction to Danish landscape photography with a wide range of Danish photographers. Even without understanding the short Danish texts in the book, the books are worth buying. The strength of the images and their thematic cohesion makes the words redundant.
The exhibition “From here, where we stand” can be seen in Copenhagen until January. It is currently being shown at gl. Holtegaard and Sophienholm. The Exhibition has already been shown in Saint Petersburg , and with a bit of luck it will make its way out into the world.
© All copyright remains with photographer Trine Søndergaard and Nicolai Howalt