Why Photography?

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter has been groundbreaking for almost 50 years in presenting new and experimental art, and is a historical place for photography in Norway.

Edited by MELK together with Susanne Østby Sæther (HOK), Why Photography? highlights and delves into the current generation of photographers and serves as a reference publication for the years to come.

They ask artists to articulate, with words and images, how they see and relate to photography as a technical apparatus, as well as why they have chosen photography and the potential future of the medium. Rather than being a classic scholarly publication, the goal is to release a visual manifesto that outlines diverse and varied viewpoints from every corner of the globe.

In 2017, Henie Onstad launched an ambitious photo programme, which aims to increase engagement with and knowledge of modern and contemporary photography as an art form. As part of the photo programme, they are developing a new and extensive exhibition format in the form of a triennial that will showcase recent developments in photography and camera-based art more generally. The exhibition occurs every third year, bringing together recent work of around 35 international artists.

Henie Onstad will work with new collaborative partners as co-curators for each edition. For the first edition, they are collaborating with the artist-run Oslo-based gallery MELK (Behzad Farazollahi, Christian Tunge, and Bjarne Bare), who have been pivotal in promoting new practices within Scandinavian photography both nationally and internationally.