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Across the West and Toward the North: Norwegian and American Landscape Photography ed. by Shannon Egan and Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad
William Wyckoff
Across the West and Toward the North: Norwegian and American Landscape Photography. Edited by Shannon Egan and Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2022. ix + 215 pp. Plates, figures, select bibliography, index. $34.95 paper.
This remarkable collection of images and essays explores the shared worlds of landscape photography as they developed between 1870 and 1920, both in Norway and in the American West. Editors Shannon Egan and Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad have assembled an international collection of scholars to ponder the parallel stories of how landscape photography blossomed in both national settings in the late nineteenth century to serve a variety of commercial and scientific interests. The result—superbly illustrated and meticulously documented—is an enduring collection of ideas and images that shines fresh light on both settings and discovers fascinating similarities in how American and Norwegian imagemakers captured the landscapes they encountered.
The book opens with a set of two dozen images drawn from Norway and the American West. The work of American photographers such as William Henry Jackson, Timothy O’Sullivan, and Carleton Watkins is provocatively juxtaposed with images made by Norwegian photographers such as Knud Knudsen, Anders Wilse, and Axel Lindahl. Immediately, the reader is confronted by their common visual [End Page 357] ground. An opening essay by editor Shannon Egan points out how both groups of photographers used similar equipment, framed their subjects in parallel ways, and shared common interests in the subjects they photographed. For example, both traditions emphasized Romantic subjects of wild nature in their images, but their work also jointly celebrated the “technological sublime” of conquering nature (photographs of railroads, spectacular highways) as well as a fascination for portraying “native peoples” (Norwegian peasants and herders, American Indians) in their primitive homelands. Both traditions also promoted tourism in their respective countries and celebrated and projected a strong sense of nationalism.
The remainder of the book features four longer essays that detail particular photographers, themes, or settings in greater detail and five briefer pieces that each compare an American landscape image with a related Norwegian image. Several conclusions jointly emerge. First, there was extensive travel between the two countries by the photographers themselves. Second, many practicing photographers of this era were aware of other landscape photographers active during the late nineteenth century. These were not craftsmen practicing in isolation. Third, both groups of photographers played formative roles in building their respective national identities in ways that persist to the present. This fine collection shines new light on these similarities and will be of use to anyone interested in how these transnational intersections help us understand both the American West and the Norwegian North. [End Page 358]
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In 1981, noted historian Frederick C. Luebke edited the first issue of Great Plains Quarterly. In his editorial introduction, he wrote The Center for Great Plains Studies has several purposes in publishing the Great Plains Quarterly. Its general purpose is to use this means to promote appreciation of the history and culture of the people of the Great Plains and to explore their contemporary social, economic, and political problems. The Center seeks further to stimulate research in the Great Plains region by providing a publishing outlet for scholars interested in the past, present, and future of the region."
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