The photos of Marta Anna Løvberg are empty in space but subtly full of emotion. Her project Through the Norwegian air shows pictures of the often snow-clad environment of Scandinavia. Loneliness and isolation seem to be her theme, but the Polish photographer, who resides in Norway, looks for images that are ‘measured and scarce, but at the same time bright and subtly inviting’. In her project statement she writes: “I search for images that are quiet at first glance but reveal a rhythm or unexpected visual music in motives that don't fit together.”

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Marta Anna Løvberg was always drawn to open spaces. “When I started to travel around Norway, I wanted to show what made me move there. To show both my personality and the landscapes that make me feel at home. For this project, I searched for images that are quiet at first glance but reveal a rhythm or unexpected visual music in motives that are taken out of the context of their location.”

With this series Løvberg wanted to create images that give the viewer a real experienced space. “I made these photos mainly to memorize my favourite places and the way they make me feel. Someone once described my images as measured and scarce, but at the same time bright and subtly inviting. Tight and vulnerable at the same time. Strangely unassuming. I guess you could say it is a good definition both of me and the Norwegian landscape.”

Her work is quite minimalistic. It seems that famous Norwegian minimalism resonates in her photography. How does she see this? “I think Norway is more dramatic than minimalistic in many ways, at least when it comes to the landscape. Though Norwegian culture allows for minimalism, for being alone, having your own personal space and savouring it. And that resonates in my images. My style hasn't really developed until I moved here. Hence, the environment had an influence both on me and my work.”

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Personal projects

Her interest in culture and art started in her teenage years. “As a teenager, I was into many different things, like dancing, painting, and music. Still, I got bored with almost everything fast. Photography, with all its genres and different ways of working, was the only thing that stuck with me over the years. It is the combination of visual language and technical gimmicks that does the trick for me. I started to take photos back in 1997 when I got my first camera - an analogue Zenith-B. I was never good at it though. It took many years of practice to discover my own photographic language. I transitioned to working as a full time professional in 2008 when I moved to Norway.”

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Løvberg is planning out a photo book with the images from Through the Norwegian air and applying for a couple of exhibitions in Norway. “I am always looking for possibilities to show my work to wider audiences. Still, as the photographic world is focused on the emotionally driven work, my somehow scarce images need to wait their turn.”

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She also works as a commercial photographer, but finds it hard to combine the two. “One always takes time away from the other. Right now, I am stuck with a lot of commercial work, so the autonomous work is on hold. Commercially I mostly work with portraits and product photography, and for the last two years also with film and design. It is such a different way of working that sometimes it is hard to switch from one to the other. When I work commercially, it is all about delivering results. Personal projects are more about me and what is going on inside my head, and that eats way more energy than the commercial work. I have to watch not to drain myself with personal work, so I can still work commercially. Tough balance.”

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‍Philosophy

Inspiration comes from single images, Løvberg finds, but she does not cling to one particular photographer. “It is way too easy to try to recreate photos of other photographers, instead of work on your own style. I am more inspired by books about the philosophy of photography. Reading about different approaches to solving issues photography presents, from the historical, cultural and scientific point of view is my biggest inspiration. It is somewhere in those pages I found inspiration to start analyzing winning images in the fine-art photography competitions. If you forensically analyze those pictures, you will discover that they are rich in colour, in somewhat darker tones, conceptual or documentary in their nature and very emotionally driven. I want to promote a way of seeing that might be otherwise overlooked - on the opposite scale from the winning photographs.”

In our over saturated visual world Løvberg wants to create a place to breathe. “In today's visual world, there is so much content, it is hard to stop and really notice anything. Thus, I am on a mission to produce measured, scarce, tight, subtly inviting, light and vulnerable images that give the viewer a place to rest their eyes on.”

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Marta Anna Løvberg was born in 1983 in Poland, grew up in Gdansk and relocated to Norway in 2008. She currently lives in the south-east part of Norway, on a small farm surrounded by forest.

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