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Kjetil Karlsen
Kjetil Karlsen is a photographer whose evocative work explores silence, time, and memory. His book Watching the Silence was published by Skeleton Key Press/Russell Joslin Publishing in 2024. Karlsen’s photography has been featured in renowned publications including Black + White Photography and Blick Winkel. His work has been exhibited internationally in Paris, Athens, Ghent, Ostend, and across Norway.
Charlotte Parkin
Head of Marketing & Sub Editor for On Landscape. Dabble in digital photography, open water swimmer, cooking buff & yogi.
I was introduced to Kjetil's work when Arild Heitmann submitted his article for his chosen end frame image. Like Arild, I was captivated by the image. As Arild says, "It depicts a typical stormy winter day in the north—visibility reduced to almost nothing, the wind and snow practically lashing out at you. I imagine that’s the sentiment behind the title: you couldn’t be further from lilac blossoms than this." I reached out to Kjetil to find more about his work and the story of his connection to the landscape of northern Norway.
We’d love to hear a bit about your background — what first sparked your interest in photography, what you studied, and what kind of work you do now.
With my curiosity, connection to the nature I was surrounded by, and my creativity, it was my grandmother who first sparked my interest in photography. She was also the one who bought me my first cameras. She always had a camera with her, almost wherever she was. We spent a lot of time together, and her knowledge of nature, her ability to convey stories in combination with photography, opened up a whole new world for me that was exciting and that I took to heart and that I felt familiar with from early childhood. At that time, the pictures were created as something concrete, in addition to the memories. Documentation of events and experiences.
Gradually, the technical elements became more important, and the patience of waiting for the right light, the elements of the image, and the awareness of the meaning of the image became clearer. To me, many of my previous photos appear "empty". Many of them are beautiful, and have good subjective memory. Preferably ,species photos from the world of fauna and flora. But still "empty", because apart from the fact that I have memories attached to each picture, there is no more. And it is this "more" that I gradually start to look for.
One beautiful summer evening in my teenage years, I lay on my back in the grass and looked up at the sky. It was midnight, and the sun was shining diagonally across the landscape towards where I lay. In the same way, the cool wind blew in over where I lay and carried with it the scents of the marshes, forests and mountains, and it was all an intense experience that I knew I would always remember. Then I thought... "How can I convey this feeling in one picture". A picture in which those who see it feel much the same. Of course, it was too ambitious a thought, but it was the start of where I am today.
Later, my interest in human emotions, interpersonal relationships, man's connection to nature and nature's mysticism became stronger, and my experiences with different landscapes and how these affected me became something I had to explore. Here in the north, the landscapes have great variation. It is a short distance from the sea to the mountain plateaus and mountain peaks, although there are large differences in altitude. From the forests that envelop you and invite you to security, to the bare mountain that lies there expansive, black and bare, and that puts man's mental strength to the test, to the mountain peaks that stretch huge and majestic towards the sky. Beautiful and dangerous.