This exhibition features 25 artists who participated in the Nordic Analog Network (NAN) residency program from 2022 to 2024 or are artists who run the program’s darkrooms. The network was established by CYAN Studio (Oslo) and the Finnish Darkroom Association (Helsinki), and connects analog photography darkrooms across the Nordic countries to foster artistic exchange, mobility, and the transmission of tactile, craft-based knowledge. The Darkroom Exchange program supports artists working with analog methods by offering Nordic artists residencies in darkrooms across Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. Between 2022 and 2024, 26 artists participated and 10 darkrooms received visiting artists.
The current trend that stands out in the international, and is also reflected in the Nordic Analog
photography scene is a focus on the personal experience and connection to oneself and the world
around, or the inside and outside landscape if you will.
The landscape is not empty or merely a backdrop, but it has inhabitants: people, animals, plants, or
even the landscape itself can be understood as a “residence,” a home for life. This exhibition
explores ecological coexistence and the agency of nature, connections to self and the world around,
taking in the landscape both inside and outside of the photographer.
The artists engage deeply with nature and environmental awareness. Many of the works investigate
the relationship between humans and the natural world, examining soil, water, plants, animals,
climate change, and human impact on the environment. A multispecies perspective is present
throughout, highlighting non-human agencies. Nature is not merely a subject but an active
participant or collaborator in the artistic process, including in the material elements of photography
and darkroom practices such as light and silver.
The exhibition shows the material and processual nature of photography. The works emphasize
slowness, chance, and the tactile qualities of analog methods such as silver mirror effects, camera
obscura, lumen prints, and plant-based developers. Here, photography is not just a means of
representation but a lived, sensory process through which the world is experienced and interpreted.
The landscape is presented not as a fleeting image but a constantly active, living space: the
“memory” of the landscape. It serves both as an object of study and as artistic material. The artists’
processes resemble fieldwork and observation, combining visual and textual documentation with
personal experiences and reflections, creating a layered exploration of place and its meanings.
Artists in the exhibition:
Finland: Anssi Ruuska, Jenni Toivonen, Juliana Irene Smith, Katri Lassila, Iina Gröhn, Natlia
Kopkina, Patrick Kuoppamaki, Selina Oakes, Sirja Moberg, Toivo Heinimaki.
Denmark: Andreas Olesen, Emma Harris, Johan Buch, Jon Bjarni, Maia Torp Neergaard, Mai
Keldsen.
Iceland: Hallgerdur Hallgrimsdottir.
Norway: Cornelia Stefanescu, Grethe Irene Einarsen, Julie Karine Schie Olsen, Lexy L Xiao, Stig M Weston.
Sweden: Ingrid Jacobsen, Oskar Söderman, Vanni Jung Stahle
The exhibition is curated by Natalia Kopkina - Finnish Darkroom Association (Helsinki), and Stig
Marlon Weston – CYAN studio (Oslo).
The Nordic Analog Network has been supported by Nordic Culture Point, Nordisk Kulturfond,
Norsk-Finsk Kulturfond and Kulturrådet.
The exhibition Resident Landscape is supported by Norsk Fotografisk Fond and Oslo Kommune
Kulturetaten
www.nordicanalognetwork.com
www.cyanstudio.no
