KJETIL KARLSEN: Watching the Silence
“[Watching the Silence] represents an expressive documentary—whether based on the body or the soul—of a highly original and memorable experiment, an endeavor to reach beyond the facts of existence to its feelings.”
Kjetil Karlsen’s debut book portrays the beauty and isolation of northern Norway, uncovering the profound connection between body, soul, and nature
Kjetil Karlsen’s debut monograph, Watching the Silence, invites readers to venture into northern Norway’s isolated and remote landscapes, seen through the author’s singular lens. Here, Karlsen’s life experiences are distilled into a world that is familiar yet, intriguingly, otherworldly. The book showcases nearly 90 black and white plates, divided into six chapters, and printed in dark, rich, and cold tones that capture the beauty and extremes of the distinct elements of the far north.
Karlsen’s photographs serve as gateways to mythological and psychological themes, unveiling the profound connection between the body, soul, and nature. As Arno Rafael Minkkinen, the renowned photographer whose expansive foreword opens the book, eloquently describes, Watching the Silence is “a kind of unguided tour by ghosts, one-legged wanderers, and soulless strangers performing their gravity-defying stunts, tender couplings, and displaying their psychic energies in an enigmatically desolate yet hardly unwelcoming landscape.”
Watching the Silence is an extraordinary debut. It is a captivating, exquisitely curated collection of Karlsen’s finest works, hardbound in cloth. It offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the beauty and extremes of the natural and supernatural worlds that promises to leave a lasting impression on the reader.
“When I create, I am entirely dependent on light. However, I aim to express universal emotions stemming from the deep silence within us, far down on the grayscale. We all carry this darkness, but most try to avoid it at all costs. I love the light and the joy, but the light would not be as valuable without the melancholy of darkness. It’s like the euphoria of a new summer after a long, dark, and cold winter here in the north.” —Kjetil Karlsen
“When flipping to any page spread in this volume, Kjetil Karlsen’s hunting ground becomes a never-ending reverie, a swirling journey hidden inside a locked, missing key diary made incarnate by a cast of nameless, faceless, and often glowing and shapeless beings.” —Arno Rafael Minkkinen, from the foreword in Watching the Silence
“Figures wander [the places in Watching the Silence] like lost souls, like ghosts bound to the land, like echoes reverberating through the thick, cloying fog—a whisper, then a shout, then a whisper again.” —Alex Prior, Photobook Reviewer
“[Kjetil Karlsen’s photographs] create a counterweight to the restlessness, chasing, and uncertainty that characterizes the time we call ours.” —Sverre Følstad, NY TID
“Watching the Silence gives you the feeling of entering a space merging with the mysteries of the liberated unconscious. [. . .] It dances with ghosts, drawn to the lens by a photographer who truly believes in the power of the medium.” —Fabien Ribery, L’intervalle
KJETIL KARLSEN is a photographer from northern Norway who captures the essence of nature’s influence on human emotions and the collective human experience. He employs a diverse range of analog and digital photographic techniques and emphasizes authenticity by using natural illumination to capture his subjects. Karlsen draws inspiration from the profound well of human emotions and explores themes of vulnerability and the inherent connection between individuals and their natural surroundings. His work has been exhibited in galleries across Norway and France, and he has also contributed cover art and produced music videos for artists worldwide. Watching the Silence is Karlsen’s first book.
ARNO RAFAEL MINKKINEN is a Finnish-American photographer and Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Docent at the Aalto University School of Art, Design, and Architecture in Helsinki. He has dedicated over five decades to unmanipulated nude self-portraits in communion and counterpoint with nature and urban settings. Minkkinen has published numerous works, including eight monographs, and participated in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
Published by Skeleton Key Press, May 2024
ISBN 978-82-692410-6-8
19.5 x 25 cm (7.7 x 9.8 in)
Hardcover (clothbound/tipped-in image/foil stamped), 152 pages, 88 plates
Edited and designed by Russell Joslin
Foreword by Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Text in English
First Edition limited to 500 copies
